Local News in Brief : Seawall Pact Endangered

Attorneys for the state have threatened to scuttle a tentative settlement with a group of Malibu property owners over a series of rotting seawalls unless a majority of the homeowners sign the agreement soon.

Officials from the state attorney general’s office told about 20 homeowners in the Las Tunas Beach area that litigation will be resumed if they do not join others property owners who have agreed to the settlement, which would require them to help pay for repair of the concrete barriers and assume future liability for the structures.

“If you don’t want to sign the agreement, then we’ll just finish the lawsuit,” said Assistant Atty. Gen. Greg Taylor.

The barriers, called groins, were built 59 years ago to protect the beach, but the concrete eventually broke away and salt water corroded the exposed metal supports, leaving behind sharp, twisted spikes that today jut out along the beach.

Under the tentative agreement, a geologic hazard abatement district would be formed and eight deteriorated groins would be replaced by three new concrete barriers at an estimated cost of $1.7 million, with the homeowners being assessed $450,000.