Trail Residents Ask City: What Took You So Long?

Residents along the two private streets are reacting to the city's lawsuit by asking — what took the city so long?

For years, they say, they had been putting up with bullying by the MRCA. The agency has been posting signs on their property and ordering landowners to remove their fences and mailboxes from their front yards. Some residents have been threatened with $11,000-per-day fines.

Neighbors who objected were threatened with fines, encroachment violations, and years of actual ongoing litigation.

One canyon over, a similar issue has resulted in the MRCA actually demanding $11,000 per day in administrative fines, payable now. That is in the Sycamore Park neighborhood, another trail access point into the Ramirez Canyon waterfall. Sycamore Park is not at issue in this new city lawsuit.

On Winding Way and Murphy Way, homeowners had hired blue-chip attorneys, who researched the land ownership history and said evidence shows the MRCA does not own the easements. More than two years ago, they presented this evidence to the City of Malibu.

But the city tried to negotiate with the MRCA — come up with some sort of compromise. The city kept the matter confidential, as the problems surrounding the trails and PCH safety worsened.

The trails were energetically promoted by the MRCA, attracting thousands of visitors to overcrowded fragile parklands. The result: dangerous conditions on Pacific Coast Highway, and defacement of private property. And MRCA threats against private property owners.

The question today from many of them: Why did it take the City of Malibu over two years to take action? Why were small private residential streets used as trailheads, when alternative access points existed?

The city was given concrete proof it owns these trails, the information was vetted by at least three outside law firms, yet years passed without decisive action — until now.

The residents are asking: what took so long?