Malibu Municipal Code § 2.58 CCT Acquisition and Management

A. Introduction

The beaches of Malibu are world-famous tourist destinations for millions of visitors annually from foreign countries, all 50 states of the U.S., as well as to residents of cities and towns located throughout California. In addition, the Santa Monica Mountains area within and adjacent to the City provides an extensive network of public trails that traverse and connect Federal, State, and County parklands, and a system of heavily used historic trails on private land. Overall, a wide variety of recreational opportunities exist in the area including hiking, biking, horseback riding, camping, fishing, picnicking, nature study, surfing, diving, and swimming. Public access to and along the shoreline and trails, and the provision of public recreational opportunities and visitor-serving facilities such as campgrounds, hotels and motels has historically been a critical and controversial issue in Malibu. Continuing conflicts in providing maximum public access to and along the shoreline and trails, as mandated by the Coastal Act, is evidenced in the Coastal Commission’s permit regulatory reviews and public hearings concerning proposed projects in Malibu since 1976.

The loss of coastal recreation opportunities resulting from development occurring over the past 25 years represents a significant adverse impact to the availability of public access and recreation in Malibu. Defined broadly, these opportunities include not only the physical availability of access and recreation areas, but also the ability of the public to reach and utilize these sites. Coastal access is generally viewed as an issue of physical supply, and includes lateral access (access along a beach), vertical access (access from an upland street, parking area, bluff or public park to the beach), coastal blufftop trails, and upland trails that lead to the shore or traverse inland parklands within the coastal zone. These inland parks provide significant access and recreation opportunities in the City and Santa Monica Mountains coastal zone, and are as important to coastal access as shoreline accessways.

While the physical supply of access is a primary factor in assuring access opportunities, the Local Coastal Program cannot view the issue of supply in isolation of a number of other factors. These variables include the availability of transit to beaches, parking availability, providing other support facilities such as restrooms and picnic areas, addressing user demands and conflicts, and maintenance of a diversity of coastal recreation experiences. Impacts to any one of these variables may ultimately affect the availability and use of the physical supply of access. For example, without adequate parking or alternate transportation, users will have difficulty reaching the shoreline or trailhead. Therefore, managing and increasing coastal access and ensuring that growth and development does not cumulatively impact the ability of the public to access the shoreline and trails, involves improving not only the physical supply of access, but all of the other variables that contribute to ensuring maximum coastal access.

To understand the importance of protecting and maximizing public access, it is critical to know that the public already possesses ownership interests in tidelands or those lands below the mean high tide line. Because the mean high tide line varies, the extent of lands in public ownership also varies with the location of the mean high tide line. By virtue of its admission into the Union, California became the owner of all tidelands, submerged lands and all lands lying beneath inland navigable waters. These lands are held in the State’s sovereign capacity and are subject to the common law public trust. The use of these lands is limited to public trust uses, such as navigation, fisheries, commerce, public access, water-oriented recreation, open space, and environmental protection. The protection of these public areas and the assurance of access to them lies at the heart of Coastal Act policies requiring both the implementation of a public access program and the minimization of impacts to access through the regulation of development.

1. Coastal Act Provisions. A broad policy goal of California’s Coastal Management Program is to maximize the provision of coastal access and recreation consistent with the protection of public rights, private property rights, and coastal resources as required by the California Constitution and provided in Section 30210 of the Coastal Act. Several additional policies contained in the Coastal Act, which are herein incorporated into the Land Use Plan, work to meet this objective. The Coastal Act requires that development not interfere with the public right of access to the sea (Section 30211); provides for public access in new development projects with limited exceptions (Section 30212); encourages the provision of lower cost visitor and recreational facilities (Section 30213); addresses the need to regulate the time, place, and manner of public access (30214); specifies the need to protect ocean front land suitable for recreational use (Section 30221); gives priority to the use of land suitable for visitor-serving recreational facilities over certain other uses (Section 30222); requires the protection of upland areas to support coastal recreation, where feasible (Section 30223); and encourages recreational boating use of coastal waters (Section 30224).

2. Land Use Plan Provisions. The policies contained in the Local Coastal Program Land Use Plan are intended to carry out the goals and objectives reflected in the policies of the Coastal Act. These policies can be broadly summarized as follows:

The overarching goal and intent of the policies provided below is to ensure that the LCP Land Use Plan provides for protection, provision, and enhancement of public access and recreation opportunities in the City of Malibu consistent with goals, objectives, and policies of the California Coastal Act.

B. Coastal Act Policies. The Coastal Act Policies set forth below are incorporated herein as policies of the Land Use Plan:

Section 30210. In carrying out the requirement of Section 4 of Article X of the California Constitution, maximum access, which shall be conspicuously posted, and recreational opportunities shall be provided for all the people consistent with public safety needs and the need to protect public rights, rights of private property owners, and natural resource areas from overuse.

Section 30211. Development shall not interfere with the public’s right of access to the sea where acquired through use or legislative authorization, including, but not limited to, the use of dry sand and rocky coastal beaches to the first line of terrestrial vegetation.

Section 30212.

(a) Public access from the nearest public roadway to the shoreline and along the coast shall be provided in new development projects except where:

(1) It is inconsistent with public safety, military security needs, or the protection of fragile coastal resources,

(2) Adequate access exists nearby, or,

(3) Agriculture would be adversely affected. Dedicated accessway shall not be required to be opened to public use until a public agency or private association agrees to accept responsibility for maintenance and liability of the accessway.

(b) For purposes of this section, “new development” does not include:

(1) Replacement of any structure pursuant to the provisions of subdivision (g) of Section 30610.

(2) The demolition and reconstruction of a single-family residence; provided, that the reconstructed residence shall not exceed either the floor area, height or bulk of the former structure by more than 10 percent, and that the reconstructed residence shall be sited in the same location on the affected property as the former structure.

(3) Improvements to any structure which do not change the intensity of its use, which do not increase either the floor area, height, or bulk of the structure by more than l0 percent, which do not block or impede public access, and which do not result in a seaward encroachment by the structure.

(4) The reconstruction or repair of any seawall; provided, however, that the reconstructed or repaired seawall is not a seaward of the location of the former structure.

(5) Any repair or maintenance activity for which the commission has determined, pursuant to Section 30610, that a coastal development permit will be required unless the commission determines that the activity will have an adverse impact on lateral public access along the beach.

(c) Nothing in this division shall restrict public access nor shall it excuse the performance of duties and responsibilities of public agencies which are required by Sections 66478.1 to 66478.14, inclusive, of the Government Code and by Section 4 of Article X of the California Constitution.

Section 30212.5. Wherever appropriate and feasible, public facilities, including parking areas or facilities, shall be distributed throughout an area so as to mitigate against the impacts, social and otherwise, of overcrowding or overuse by the public of any single area.

Section 30213. Lower cost visitor and recreational facilities shall be protected, encouraged, and, where feasible, provided. Developments providing public recreational opportunities are preferred.

The Commission shall not: (1) require that overnight room rentals be fixed at an amount certain for any privately owned and operated hotel, motel, or other similar visitor-serving facility located on either public or private lands; or (2) establish or approve any method for the identification of low or moderate income persons for the purpose of determining eligibility for overnight room rentals in any such facilities.

Section 30214.

(a) The public access policies of this article shall be implemented in a manner that takes into account the need to regulate the time, place, and manner of public access depending on the facts and circumstances in each case including, but not limited to, the following:

(1) Topographic and geologic site characteristics.

(2) The capacity of the site to sustain use and at what level of intensity.

(3) The appropriateness of limiting public access to the right to pass and repass depending on such factors as the fragility of the natural resources in the area and the proximity of the access area to adjacent residential uses.

(4) The need to provide for the management of access areas so as to protect the privacy of adjacent property owners and to protect the aesthetic values of the area by providing for the collection of litter.

(b) It is the intent of the Legislature that the public access policies of this article be carried out in a reasonable manner that considers the equities and that balances the rights of the individual property owner with the public’s constitutional right of access pursuant to Section 4 of Article X of the California Constitution. Nothing in this section or any amendment thereto shall be construed as a limitation on the rights guaranteed to the public under Section 4 of Article X of the California Constitution.

(c) In carrying out the public access policies of this article, the commission and any other responsible public agency shall consider and encourage the utilization of innovative access management techniques, including, but not limited to, agreements with private organizations which would minimize management costs and encourage the use of volunteer programs.

Section 30220. Coastal areas suited for water-oriented recreational activities that cannot readily be provided at inland water areas shall be protected for such uses.

Section 30221. Oceanfront land suitable for recreational use shall be protected for recreational use and development unless present and foreseeable future demand for public or commercial recreational activities that could be accommodated on the property is already adequately provided for in the area.

Section 30222. The use of private lands suitable for visitor-serving commercial recreational facilities designed to enhance public opportunities for coastal recreation shall have priority over private residential, general industrial, or general commercial development, but not over agriculture or coastal-dependent industry.

Section 30223. Upland areas necessary to support coastal recreational uses shall be reserved for such uses, where feasible.

Section 30224. Increased recreational boating use of coastal waters shall be encouraged, in accordance with this division, by developing dry storage areas, increasing public launching facilities, providing additional berthing space in existing harbors, limiting non-water-dependent land uses that congest access corridors and preclude boating support facilities, providing harbors of refuge, and by providing for new boating facilities in natural harbors, new protected water areas, and in areas dredged from dry land.

Section 30252. The location and amount of new development should maintain and enhance public access to the coast by (1) facilitating the provision or extension of transit service, (2) providing commercial facilities within or adjoining residential development or in other areas that will minimize the use of coastal access roads, (3) providing nonautomobile circulation within the development, (4) providing adequate parking facilities or providing substitute means of serving the development with public transportation, (5) assuring the potential for public transit for high intensity uses such as high-rise office buildings, and by (6) assuring that the recreational needs of new residents will not overload nearby coastal recreation areas by correlating the amount of development with local park acquisition and development plans with the provision of onsite recreational facilities to serve the new development.

C. Land Use Plan Policies

2.41 For all offers to dedicate an easement that are required as conditions of Coastal Development Permits approved by the City, the City has the authority to approve a private association that seeks to accept the offer. Any government agency may accept an offer to dedicate an easement if the agency is willing to operate and maintain the easement. The City shall approve any private association that submits a management plan that indicates that the association will open, operate, and maintain the easement in accordance with terms of the recorded offer to dedicate the easement.

a. Connects parks and major recreational facilities;

b. Links with trail systems of adjacent jurisdictions;

c. Provides recreational corridors between the mountains and the coast;

d. Allows for flexible, site-specific design and routing to minimize impacts on adjacent development, and fragile habitats. In particular, ensure that trails located within or adjacent to Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Areas are designed to protect fish and wildlife resources;

e. Provides connections with populated areas;

f. Includes trails designed to accommodate multiple use (hiking, biking and equestrian) where multiple use can be provided safely for all users and where impacts to coastal resources are minimized;

g. Reserves certain trails for hiking only;

h. Facilitates linkages to community trail systems;

i. Provides diverse recreational and aesthetic experiences;

j. Prohibits public use of motorized vehicles on any trail;

k. Provides public parking at trail head areas;

l. Ensures that trails are used for their intended purpose and that trail use does not violate private property rights.

a. Provide a continuous walking and hiking trail as close to the ocean as possible;

b. Provide maximum access for a variety of non-motorized uses by utilizing alternative trail segments where feasible;

c. Maximize connections to existing and proposed local trail systems;

d. Ensure that all segments of the trail have vertical access connections at reasonable intervals;

e. Maximize ocean views and scenic coastal vistas;

f. Provide an educational experience where feasible through interpretive facilities.

a. The trail should be sited and designed to be located along or as close to the shoreline where physically and aesthetically feasible. Where it is not feasible to locate the trail along the shoreline due to natural landforms or legally authorized development that prevents passage at all times, inland bypass trail segments located as close to the shoreline as possible should be utilized. Shoreline trail segments that may not be passable at all times should provide inland alternative routes.

b. Where gaps are identified in the trail, interim segments should be identified to ensure a continuous coastal trail. Interim segments should be noted as such, with provisions that as opportunities arise, the trail shall be realigned for ideal siting. Interim trail segments should meet as many of the CCT objectives and standards as possible.

c. The CCT should be designed and located to minimize impacts to environmentally sensitive habitat areas to the maximum extent feasible. Where appropriate, trail access should be limited to pass and repass. Where necessary to prevent disturbance of nesting birds, sections of the trail may be closed on a seasonal basis. Alternative trail segments shall be provided where feasible.

d. The CCT should be located to incorporate existing oceanfront trails and paths and support facilities of public shoreline parks and beaches to the maximum extent feasible.

e. To provide a continuously identifiable trail along the base and shoreline of the Santa Monica Mountains, the trail should be integrated with the CCT in Ventura and Los Angeles Counties which border the City.

f. The CCT should be designed to avoid being located on roads with motorized vehicle traffic where feasible. In locations where it is not possible to avoid siting the trail along a roadway, the trail should be located off of the pavement and within the public right-of-way, and separated from traffic by a safe distance. In locations where the trail must cross a roadway, appropriate directional and traffic warning signing should be provided.

a. Trail easements should be obtained by encouraging private donation of land, by public purchase, or by dedication of trail easements. Trail easement dedications shall be required as a condition of approval of a Coastal Development Permit for development on property located on the CCT route, when the dedication will mitigate adverse impacts on public access and/or recreation by the project.

b. The CCT plan should identify the appropriate management agency(s) to take responsibility for trail maintenance.

a. The trail should provide adequate signage at all access points, trailheads, parking lots, road crossings, and linkages or intersections with other trails or roads which incorporate the CCT logo (to be designed).

b. The trail should provide adequate safety signage, including but not limited to, road crossing signs and yield/warning signs on multi-use trail segments. Where appropriate signs should be developed in coordination with Caltrans and/or City and County Public Works Departments and any other applicable public agencies.

c. Signs shall be posted in Spanish and in English.

To maximize access to the CCT, adequate parking and trailhead facilities should be provided.

a. The final CCT map shall identify all planned or secured segments, including existing segments, all access linkages and planned staging areas, public and private lands, existing easements, deed restricted sections and sections subject to an Offer-to-dedicate (OTD). The map shall be updated on a regular basis.

b. The CCT shall be identified on all applicable City Trail Maps contained in the LCP Access Component.

The LCP shall be amended to incorporate all plans and designs for locating and implementing the CCT within the City including the final mapped alignment.

a. Nicholas Canyon. No new dedications required — public beach.

b. Encinal. A minimum of two vertical accessway (OTDs) between Nicholas Canyon and El Pescadero for a separation of approximately one accessway per 2500 feet. Development of an accessway at El Sol may satisfy one of the requirements. Additional offers of dedication should be located at least 600 feet west of El Sol.

c. Lechuza. Public acquisition of or requirements for two vertical access (OTDs).

d. Trancas / Broad Beach. Public acquisition of and/or requirements for vertical access every 1,000 feet of shoreline.

e. Zuma. No new dedications required — public beach.

f. Point Dume State Beach / Westward Beach. No new dedications required — public beach.

g. Dume Cove / Point Dume State Reserve

1. Vertical access to the beach from the blufftop headlands parking lot.

2. Vertical access to and lateral access along the blufftop at the Point Dume headlands for coastal view purposes and passive recreation, with a minimum of two established viewpoints at least 500 feet apart.

3. The provision and protection of public parking pursuant to the terms of the settlement agreement between the City, the State Department of Parks and Recreation and the Coastal Commission shall be required.

h. Paradise Cove. Requirement for or public acquisition of vertical access every 1,000 feet of shoreline (with no fewer than two).

i. Escondido Beach — Malibu Cove Colony

1. Requirement for or public acquisition of vertical access every 1,000 feet of shoreline (with at least two additional accessways to those existing at Escondido Creek and Seacliff).

2. Maintain and operate 2 existing vertical accessways.

3. Improve and open 3 existing vertical access easements.

j. Latigo Beach

1. Requirement for or public acquisition of vertical access dedication on property seaward of and fronting Latigo Shore Drive to meet standard of one accessway every 1,000 feet.

2. Requirement for or acquisition of public viewpoint on the blufftop at Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) or public street seaward of PCH.

3. Improve and open existing vertical accessway and OTD.

k. Dan Blocker Beach. Improvement of existing vertical accessway, public parking and restroom facilities on portion of shoreline owned by Los Angeles County.

l. Malibu Beach Road (Amarillo and Puerco Beach)

1. Requirement for or public acquisition of vertical access every 1,000 feet of shoreline.

2. Improve and open existing 100 foot wide vertical access OTD for public use in accordance with the site plan approved by the California Coastal Conservancy on August 8, 2002.

3. Maintain and operate existing accessway (5 are open).

4. Enhance trail connections to Malibu Bluffs State Park.

m. Malibu Beach. Public vertical access dedications or public acquisition to meet the minimum standard of one accessway per 1,000 feet of shoreline from properties located seaward of and fronting on Malibu Road.

n. Malibu Lagoon State Beach / Surfrider Beach. No dedications required — public beach.

o. Carbon Beach

1. Requirement for or public acquisition of vertical access every 1,000 feet of shoreline.

2. Improve and open 2 existing vertical access OTDs and 4 existing vertical access deed restrictions.

3. Maintain and operate existing “Zonker Harris” vertical accessway.

p. La Costa / Las Flores Beaches

1. Requirement for or public acquisition of vertical access every 1,000 feet of shoreline.

2. Improve and open vertical access easement at Las Flores Creek.

3. Improve and open parcel at 21704 PCH at western end.

q. Big Rock Beach

1. Dedication of one vertical accessway every 1,000 feet of shoreline.

2. Maintain and operate 2 existing accessways.

r. Las Tunas Beach

1. Dedication of one vertical accessway every 1,000 feet of shoreline.

2. Improve and open existing vertical access OTD and Deed Restriction.

(Resolution No. 06-14,; Resolution No. 06-61; Resolution No. 06-71; Resolution No. 07-04; Resolution No. 07-15; Resolution No. 10-49; Resolution No. 11-05; Resolution No. 11-23; Resolution No. 11-45; Resolution No. 15-63; Resolution No. 19-33; Resolution No. 19-49; Resolution No. 21-32; Resolution No. 24-37)