Malibu's New Overnight Camping

View looking down Corral Canyon on the Malibu coast of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. County-owned Corral Beach and Santa Monica Bay are visible at the mouth of the Canyon, as is Pacific Coast Highway and an MTA Bus Stop. Recently the Coastal Commission approved a walk-in campground on the level hilltop on the left side of the canyon as part of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy's Malibu Parks Access Plan. photo by Robert Rothstein

Public campgrounds via public
transportation. Catch a bus
in downtown L.A., then camp's
an easy walk from this bus
stop.

Most of the past media coverage of the City of Malibu has focused on its celebrities rather than on its spectacular mountainous coastline. In fact, the media has been so dazzled by celebrity that it rarely mentions the fact that the 20-mile City of Malibu coastline has been designated by Congress as part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, yet the City has steadfastly resisted the establishment of any overnight campsites on public or private property anywhere within the city limits, depriving ordinary people of the opportunity to camp overnight near the beach and be lulled to sleep by the sound of the surf and awake to stunning blue water views of Santa Monica Bay.

There are a few inland day use parks in the City, but no existing public trail connections that link these inland parks to each other or to public beaches. The trails that do exist in the City of Malibu do not usually provide the spectacular views of coast, canyons, and mountains that hundreds of Malibu residents enjoy daily from their beachfront and hilltop patios and picture windows.

After it had bought five separate inland properties within the City a few years ago, The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy began formulating plans for a network of trails and campsites known as the 'Malibu Parks Public Access Enhancement Plan' that would link these inland parks to each other and to public beaches, and establish the first overnight public campsites within the City limits of Malibu.

Not surprisingly, many Malibu residents and the City itself resisted plans for overnight camping and improved public access, using claims of fire danger as justification (even though campers in Malibu Creek State Park, five miles inland from the Malibu coast, have never started a fire in the thirty years that park has been in existence, while several fires have been started in Malibu during that time by downed utility lines, careless use of tools, and arsonists). The City of Malibu has sued twice to block overnight camping, so far without success. Recently the Conservancy complained publicly that it had spent 'tens of millions of dollars acquiring an open space system (in Malibu) that is today principally used by the residents of Malibu.'

However, the Conservancy's Malibu Parks Public Access Enhancement Plan did receive strong support from the California Coastal Commission culminating on October 13th when the Commission voted unanimously to ignore the City's objections and approved the Conservancy's 'Malibu Parks Public Access Enhancement Plan'. The City of Malibu voted almost immediately to once again file suit to overturn the Coastal Commission's decision.

The plan, the culmination of a 17-year acquisition and planning effort, will provide the first public overnight camping in the City's history, along with day-use picnic areas, 17.5 miles of new and improved recreational trails connecting existing parks, new parking, and two new trailheads. When the plan is completed 280 campers will be able to camp overnight on Conservancy-owned parklands in the City of Malibu.

Two new public walk-in campgrounds will be established on Conservancy-owned properties at Malibu Bluffs and in lower Corral Canyon. Both of these campgrounds are an easy walk from public beaches and access ways and both are adjacent to bus stops on MTA bus line 434, which originates in downtown Los Angeles and serves the Westside.

To placate Malibu residents' concerns about the fire hazard, the Conservancy has adopted very strict fire safety standards for its campgrounds. The campgrounds will be closed during red flag fire hazard weather. There will be a 'cold camping' policy of no open fires with warning signs and heavy penalties enforced by a wildfire-trained 'camp host' at each campground. There will be piped in water and 10,000 gallon water tanks at each campground with firefighting apparatus available on site.

The plan recognizes the importance of protecting environmentally sensitive habitat areas. Campsites and major trails are to be located as much as possible in previously disturbed areas and are to be set back from the banks of any stream. Signage should be educational in nature and will interpret the natural resources of the Santa Monica Mountains.