Malibu Planning Commission rejects DWP storage yard on Corral Canyon Play

The City of Los Angeles was told to go pound sand by the Malibu Planning Commission last night.

Oh, it was more polite than that. But it was a unanimous vote against the LA Department of Water and Power's request to use vacant L.A. land in the heart of Malibu for an industrial storage yard.

The request was to store big electrical components and other materials before they are installed underground in Pacific Palisades — more than 10 miles away — through the Malibu fire construction mess, the overcrowded Malibu Civic Center, and the Billionaire's Beach mess.

The Malibu Planning Commission voted 3-0 to reject the request by the LA Department of Water and Power to build a storage yard for electric components on Corral Canyon Road, on a hillside above the Malibu RV campground. But the LA DWP can appeal to the city council.

DWP chose Malibu because it has owned a big chunk of vacant land here for 60 years — land that it bought six decades ago for a proposed nuclear power plant.

Residents up Corral Canyon Road — there are 220 houses up there, and Corral Canyon Road is the only way in or out — could not believe that DWP would venture 10 miles west from the L.A. city limits into Malibu for its storage yard.

DWP could have gone 10 miles east on PCH and found dozens of empty fields under DWP power towers, said one planning commissioner. And they could have put their electrical equipment laydown on any one of those.

One resident, Steven Fitzpatrick, pointed out that Corral Canyon Road is a dead end with 220 houses on it, and that the road access has several hairpin turns that the City of LA wants to run big trucks on.

“Given the additional high sharpness of the entrance turn, this will almost certainly become a major traffic stoppage slash accident potential point for the days and years to come, with the next obvious point being at the PCH intersection traffic signal,” Fitzpatrick said. “And just one miscalculation by an overwrought truck driver, resulting in a jackknife or load dump, could endanger many people in Corral Canyon for an indeterminate period.”

Other residents were simply insulted that the city of Los Angeles would put eight plastic portable bathrooms — PortaPotties — on the site, and then leave them for seven years.

“I've noticed it with all the experts coming and talking about the biological survey and zoning survey, any conceivable survey you can think of, not one time did they mention what effect it has on the residents,” said resident James Black. “It really sort of offended me. Do you think we want to go up to that road and look at a bunch of toilets every day instead of seeing the beauty of that particular location?”

In the end, it was a 3-to-nothing vote against the DWP laydown yard, with two commissioners absent.

Besides the obvious problem of putting the industrial yard in the heart of Malibu, the DWP didn't do their homework. There were no environmental studies. Nobody looked at how the trucks would navigate little, twisting Corral Canyon Road — a road as narrow and twisting as any small street in the Hollywood Hills. No study of possible viable alternative locations. No accurate study of the view impacts.

But the biggest worry for Commissioner John Mazza was the impact of DWP trucks on Pacific Coast Highway in the Malibu fire zone.

“In this seven year period, we are gonna attempt to rebuild over 200 houses on the highway,” Mazza said. “We're gonna attempt to armor the highway so it doesn't fall down. We're gonna attempt to repave the whole highway. And the state is going to build a whole new 40-acre lagoon and put in a new 480-foot bridge on the highway on the only way out of town. Now, this does not seem like a good transportation concept to add 21,000 truck trips.”

The city of Los Angeles sent eight of its highly paid managers and scientists out to Malibu last night to try to sell this to the Malibu Planning Commission.

No sale.

One DWP official, Theodore Zeiss, saw the inevitable vote coming last night, after everyone else had made their points. He practically hung his head in shame.

“I want to recognize all the anxiety and anger we've been hearing here tonight,” Zeiss said. “The reason why we're here is to hear this. We do recognize it and we know how serious this is. I do care about the land out here. I surf out here every weekend, which is kind of a cheap shot. Coming out here every weekend and going surfing is not what a Malibu resident is, but I want to say, I do care.”

Well, nice try, DWP.

Of course, the DWP can always file an appeal with the city council. But one might think the DWP got the message last night.

A hard no.