Topanga Lagoon restoration accelerates after Palisades Fire
Plans to remove the 80-year-old PCH bridge and expand the lagoon to as much as 10 acres are moving forward with new state funding.
Plans to tear out the 80-year-old bridge on Pacific Coast Highway at Topanga Creek — to enlarge the channel back into a coastal lagoon — are accelerating.
A group of parks agencies plans to dig away dirt that was placed over the past 120 years in the lagoon, just west of Topanga Canyon Boulevard.
The 2025 Palisades Fire has drastically changed the plans. The original plan was to relocate PCH slightly with a new bridge next to the historic Malibu Ranch Motel, the 100-year-old historic motor court that burned in the fire.
The motel is ashes, and plans now call for the lagoon to be increased from one acre to as much as 10 acres.
The Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains has been awarded a half million dollars in state bond funding to come up with exact plans to expand the lagoon. A helipad for emergency medical helicopters has been added over near the eastern Malibu city limits.
Other specifics involve adding sand, restoring coastal habitat, and handling one million annual visitors.
The half-million-dollar grant comes from Measure A money, an L.A. County bond issue that was approved by nearly 75% of Los Angeles County voters in 2016.