Topanga Lagoon restoration plans to be unveiled Oct. 29 Play

Yet another alphabet-soup government agency will unveil its plans for a section of Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu this month. This time it's the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains — the RCD — a Malibu-mountains-based state agency, not the MRCA and not the SMMC.

The RCD is gathering state grants to restore Topanga Lagoon. Money from various state and county bond issues will fund the project. So far they're spending about $15 million just to design it. The final price tag is unclear — probably well north of $100 million.

Biologists say the lagoon needs to be reconstructed to restore the historic connection between Topanga Creek and Santa Monica Bay. Steelhead salmon used to live in Topanga Creek until the Palisades fire last year, when they were scooped out and trucked up to Santa Barbara County to wait out the cleanup. Incidentally, the creek where they're waiting in Santa Barbara County is right next to that leaky Sable oil pipeline. Topanga Creek was the only local stream with a reproducing population of steelhead until they were erased by the fire. Scientists say current conditions at Topanga Lagoon block the fish from crossing under the highway.

Plans will be unveiled Oct. 29, when the public will get to comment on the proposed lagoon reconstruction. As is typical with state projects, the details are not being released in advance — they want a big reveal, so the public is being asked to comment on plans they cannot see ahead of time.

The broad concept is for a much longer PCH bridge to be constructed in the same place the highway sits now. Details about how PCH traffic will be handled during construction have not been released. When similar bridge replacement projects were done by Caltrans at Trancas Creek and Solstice Creek, both projects were plagued with construction mistakes, overruns, and crashes.

One major issue is how the government will handle the Malibu water main — the only water pipe bringing water to Malibu. Another is what will happen at the former site of the historic Topanga Ranch Motel, which was supposed to be preserved but burned to a crisp.

Details about the new highway and remodeled lagoon are almost 90% complete and will be shown to the public Thursday, Oct. 29, when the public gets to comment.