Malibu sues MRCA over Escondido Falls trail ownership
City seeks court order transferring trail interests from county and parks agency, citing pedestrian deaths and environmental damage.
The City of Malibu has sued the MRCA, claiming that the outside parks agency does not own trails or easements that allow the public to visit Escondido Falls via Winding Way or Murphy Way.
There has been no early reaction from the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, but the city and MRCA have been in negotiations to settle the issue for months.
The city claims that, as a municipal government, MRCA lost ownership of all trails that had been held by Los Angeles County at the time the city was incorporated in 1991. As a result, a property transfer attempted by Los Angeles County in 1998 is void, the city argues. It was in 1998 that the county Board of Supervisors transferred its supposed property in Malibu to the MRCA, instead of the new city.
Residents along Murphy Way and Winding Way have been arguing for years that the MRCA cannot enforce easements along those private streets, because the legal right to do that had transferred to the city of Malibu.
The lawsuit seeks quiet title — an order by the court transferring ownership or any interest in the trails from the county and the MRCA to the city.
The lawsuit also points out that the city has formally warned the MRCA that the lack of parking at its trailheads “posed significant safety and logistical risks.”
“That letter cautioned that directing visitors to park along PCH and cross on foot was extremely dangerous, noting the high traffic volume in the area and a documented pattern of illegal parking, illegal U-turns, and pedestrians walking along the unimproved shoulder, pinned between parked vehicles and oncoming traffic.”
Last February 8, a parkgoer named Joshua Farmer was struck and killed on PCH near Winding Way in the vicinity of the trails at the center of this lawsuit.
“The City can no longer accept the status quo,” the lawsuit states.
The 257-page complaint further alleges that MRCA’s management has resulted in environmental damage to sensitive coastal resources, failure to comply with the requirements of the California Coastal Act, inadequate trash removal, and failure to enforce boundaries protecting public open space.
In a press release today, the city said Malibu remains committed to open-space preservation, public trail access, and collaborative stewardship of the Santa Monica Mountains.
“Commencement of this legal action does not change that commitment; it reaffirms it,” the city said.
This is the second lawsuit filed by Malibu against the MRCA. It is also a defendant in a February lawsuit that blamed the parks agency for failing to perform adequate brush clearance on its parkland holdings in eastern Malibu, contributing to the destruction of the easternmost one-tenth of Malibu in the Palisades Fire.
Malibu residents have formally notified the MRCA of these dangerous conditions in the months and years preceding recent fires. The city contends that this failure to clear overgrown vegetation was a substantial contributing factor to the rapid spread and intensity of recent wildfires.
“The City acknowledges that MRCA has recently initiated new brush and vegetation management contracts for 2026 and welcomes those steps, but they are too little, too late.”
And the city vowed to maintain the public trails within its borders as safe, well-maintained, environmentally sound, and accessible to everyone who wishes to enjoy them, while also protecting hikers and visitors.