The Treasure Trove of Malibu

The Malibu cityhood election June 5 is much more important than Malibu.

I could see why last weekend when I drove Mulholland Highway west from Malibu beach, following the two-lane road on its twisting path along the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains.

The Santa Monicas are special. They bring the wilderness close to one of the nation’s most congested urban areas. To a great extent, they remain the California of the Chumash Indians, the Spanish ranchos and the early Mexican, American, European and Asian settlers. They are part of our history. My family used to take vacations in places like this when I was growing up, traveling to mountain canyon campsites on narrow roads that made my mother nervous when my father passed another car.

The mountains begin offshore from Malibu with the Channel Islands. They rise to sea level at Malibu and then become the familiar hills, mountains and canyons of the Santa Monicas. Thus, Malibu is part of the mountain chain.

So far, the nuances of geology, ecological systems and regional history haven’t been explored much in the pre-election rhetoric.

Cityhood backers say the simply want to establish a citadel of slow growth, to construct through city boundaries and regulations a hedge against development.

Opponents of cityhood also have pursued the more prosaic arguments. They talk of sewers. Specifically, they say cityhood supporters--who they prefer to cast as a mob of celebrity dilettantes--are blocking a sewer system needed to protect Santa Monica Bay and assure drainage of unstable hillsides.

These are important points. But it’s also necessary to take the argument beyond Malibu and its beach and explore the relationship between the community’s development and the mountains’ future.

Even the Spanish government saw the mountains and the Malibu beach as one. Mountains, canyons and 22 miles of oceanfront comprised the Topanga-Malibu-Sequit rancho granted to Jose Tapia in 1805. Frederic H. Rindge bought the rancho in 1889 and he and his family fought for years to keep developers--or any outsiders--away. But in 1929, after a long legal battle against the family, the state completed the Coast Highway through Malibu.

Development in Malibu and the mountains is controlled by the county supervisors because it is unincorporated land. That fact is crucial in the unfolding of the Malibu story.

In the 1960s, with Malibu then the home of just 15,000 residents, the supervisors proposed a development plan envisioning a population of 400,000. Jose Tapia’s rancho would have become another Santa Monica or the Pacific Palisades, covered with houses, condos, apartments and businesses.

The area, however, had no sewer system. Most residents then, as now, used septic tanks. They did this happily. The absence of a sewer system effectively blocked development. In the 1960s, the supervisors proposed a large sewer system to support the intended growth. Property owners, whose approval was needed for sewer construction, turned down the project. Over the years, similar proposals were defeated. But the supervisors kept trying. The homeowners’ cityhood proposal is merely the latest attempt to stop the sewer.

Meanwhile, development is intense in other parts of the Santa Monicas. It has come from the San Fernando Valley side, following the canyons that extend from the Valley to the coast. As the Valley and its foothill communities filled up, house and condo builders have moved higher up the canyons toward the crest of the Santa Monicas. This, like Malibu, is unincorporated territory, controlled by the supervisors.

The construction--and subsequent population increase--was possible because of a large sewer system built by the Los Virgenes Water District, which also supplies water to portions of the mountains. About 65,000 people now live in the district, but the sewer system is big enough to accommodate 170,000.

If cityhood loses, a similar system is expected to be built by the county in Malibu. With the sewer will come development on the beach side, following the same pattern as on the Valley side: up the canyons toward the mountain crest. Extensive development in Malibu, combined with pressure from the Valley side, will squeeze the mountain range’s remaining open space as if it were tuna salad in a sandwich.

If cityhood wins, the momentum toward a new massive sewer system would be lost.

So the debate is not just about Malibu cityhood, or meddling celebrities, or even sewers. It’s about the Santa Monica Mountains. They are a great gift, a source of recreation, a part of our history and an ecological treasure. It’s said we have no history in Southern California. We have plenty of history. We just have to think carefully about protecting it.