Caltrans holds first in-person PCH master plan meeting at City Hall

The next meeting will be on July 18 from 1 to 4 p.m. on Zoom

Nine months after the four Pepperdine students were struck and killed on Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), the City of Malibu and Caltrans held their first in-person workshop to include the community in the PCH Master Plan development to make safety enhancements along the deadly highway.

On July 11, Caltrans held a workshop at City Hall where community members were able to share their ideas on where they would make safety enhancements on PCH.

Many residents attended the meeting and shared their concerns on what needs to happen now before another tragic accident occurs.

“We know that time is of the essence here, and we know that the community wants something to happen now,” Caltrans District 7 Deputy District Director Marlon Regisford said in an NBCLA interview.

The group mainly focused on the 22-mile stretch within Malibu city limits. Options included reducing of speed, adding landscape medians, more sidewalks, paved shoulders, turn lanes, speed bumps, building bridges, parking spaces, or roundabouts.

Streets are for Everyone Executive Director Damian Kevitt attended the meeting and said it was refreshing to see Caltrans reach out and get input from the community.

“It’s definitely a new thing for Caltrans, them reaching out and sort of digging into the community or getting sort of more in-depth feedback,” Kevitt said. “Sort of phase one outreach session where you get the community feedback and what they would like to see. What are the issues that they would like to see or how they would like to reimagine, and what comes up from that.”

After the meeting, Kevitt said he felt as though Caltrans was listening and taking their input.

“We’ll see if that reflected in their design plans,” he said. “The design plans still have to be brought into reality. All of this is just going to be basically a blueprint of what could be done down the road.”

As far as what the City of Malibu is doing to create awareness, Kevitt said there could be more that could be done.

“This is not a criticism of the work that’s put into it, because I do feel like there’s been efforts and improvements made, but there could be better awareness, there could be better education, there could be better enforcement, there could be better engineering, there’s some things that will take time,” he said. “And we know that there are things that are gonnatake time to fix in Malibu. It doesn’t change overnight, but there are things that could still be done better.”

Kevitt also said there weren’t that many people who attended the workshop.

“The outreach to get people there wasn’t sufficient — that room should have been packed with people,” he said. “It shouldn’t have been just 30 people in a room. It should have been 100 people.”

Kevitt also mentioned the recent fatality that occurred near Carbon Canyon on July 4.

“That should have never happened,” he said. “It’s both an enforcement factor as well as the fact that that area could have been made safer. It’s a design aspect as well. There’s a design aspect of that exact area that needs to be addressed. So kudos to what’s been done, it still needs to be done better.”

Malibu resident and co-founder of the Emily Shane Foundation Michel Shane submitted a letter to the editor this week after attending the meeting on July 11. Shane was among the 25 to 30 people who attended the meeting.

“Given how crucial PCH is to our community, you’d think this would be a packed event, but no — only 25 to 30 people bothered to show up,” he said. “That’s a slap in the face to everyone who cares about this road and our town’s future.”

Shane said the attendees were put into groups and were asked to brainstorm ideas on their suggestions.

“There were no engineers, no experts, just us,” he said. “They handed out lists of possible changes and aerial images as if we were qualified to redesign a major highway.”

Shane said Caltrans should have led with their expertise and proposed solutions.

“Instead, they sat back while we flailed. That’s not community involvement — it’s abdication of responsibility,” he said.”Enough is enough. We deserve better. Caltrans must take this seriously, step up with real plans, and listen to our input meaningfully. It’s time our community demands more. Attend the next meeting. Speak out. Our lives depend on getting this right.”

On June 26, Caltrans representatives attended the Public Works and Public Safety joint meeting and provided an update on the PCH Master plan.

During the meeting, commissioners shared their ideas on what can be done to improve PCH and make it safer for drivers and pedestrians. One idea was to implement trees along the highway.

Executive Liason of Special Projects Ryan Snyder presented most of the slideshow and said they would “figure out” how to implement everyone’s suggestions.

Caltrans said they would release the final draft in December. The goal is to start work on the short, medium, and long-term projects as soon as next year.

The Caltrans Master Plan Feasibility Study aims to identify safety and multimodal travel improvements for all users of PCH in Malibu, including multimodal travel options for pedestrians and bicyclists, as well as enhancing transit opportunities on Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) in Malibu. The PCH Master Plan will include community stakeholder engagement activities and community outreach meetings to gather input on various traffic calming measures and other street improvements, including a “boulevard” roadway. This Master Plan will be used in future PCH safety improvement projects. For background information, review the Fact Sheet on the city’s website https://malibucity.org/DocumentCenter/View/34265/PCH-Master-Plan-Factsheet-6-20-24.

To view the video of the meeting visit: https://youtu.be/e8fAP7l0eq4?feature=shared

For further questions, please contact: D7.System.Planning@dot.ca.gov .

• Virtual community workshop — Thursday, July 18, 1 to 3 p.m.
• In-person community workshop — Wednesday, Aug. 28, 6 to 8 p.m., Malibu City Hall, Council Chambers (no remote participation option)

Watch video of Caltrans’ presentation at the June 26 joint Public Works and Public Safety Commission meeting visit at www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7kutcbJ-fQ

The post Caltrans holds first in-person PCH master plan meeting at City Hall appeared first on The Malibu Times .