Malibu halts Latigo Canyon power line undergrounding over permit dispute Play

The City of Malibu has shut down crews putting the power lines underground on Latigo Canyon Road — because Southern California Edison did not get permits to park its construction trucks on a vacant lot.

A neighbor raised a noise complaint, and the contracting company was told to stop work on the project, pack up its gear, and pull out.

The undergrounding project is, of course, intended to reduce fire danger from power lines. Fire danger has already started.

The work to install the underground conduits and large vaults for transformers is about 75 percent complete, but the electric cables have not been pulled through them.

The project is on hold while SCE gets permits for a parking lot.

Susan Routan lives up the canyon.

"Why can we not have something in place that can allow this when it is for the public good — a temporary zoning permit?" asked one resident. "Can't we do a temporary exemption so they can come and park their equipment?"

City Councilman Doug Stewart noted that this SCE undergrounding project not only includes Latigo Canyon Road, but an extensive chunk of PCH, and the whole thing is now delayed.

An SCE spokesman told KBUU that the utility company has already dropped its lease on its temporary yard at PCH and Malibu Canyon Road. He said the utility was struggling to find another location to store its trucks in Malibu.

City Manager Joe Ervin said SCE has submitted a request for a temporary use permit, which will be evaluated.

CORRECTION: This story has been corrected to fix a transcription error caused by voice to text. Joe Ervin is the city manager, not Joe Edmiston as the computer transcribed.