Malibu To Consider Limiting Overnight PCH Parking

MALIBU, CA — The Malibu City Council will consider amending the Municipal Code to limit night-time parking along two stretches of Pacific Coast Highway.

In a meeting Tuesday, the council will debate whether to create staggered overnight parking restrictions along Corral and Zuma Beach. The Corral Beach area will extend along from PCH from West Malibu Road to Corral Canyon Road, and the proposed restrictions would limit parking on the land side daily from midnight to 2 a.m., and the ocean side from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m.

The Zuma Beach stretch, where parking is already prohibited on the land side of PCH, would be divided into an east side along the beach – from the west end of the Zuma Beach entrance to 30245 PCH – and a west end, from 30245 PCH to the east end of the Trancas Canyon Bridge. The proposed amendment will prohibit parking on the east end from midnight to 2 a.m., and on the west end from 2 to 4 a.m.

If the council votes yes, the ordinance will come back for a second reading and adoption Sep. 14.

The move comes in response to increased parking along PCH at night, which according to a staff report has resulted in “loss of public parking as vehicles stay for multiple days, trash accumulation, dumping of blackwater from recreational vehicles and other vessels into the ocean.

“Without posted restrictions on overnight parking, vehicles are able to stay in one place for excessive periods of time, blocking ocean views, taking up numerous parking spaces, and facilitating camping,” the report continued. It also noted that the areas in question do not have wastewater disposal or camping facilities.

In January, the council directed staff to find areas where parking restrictions could be implemented with a Coastal Development Permit. In March, the Planning Commission approved a CDP to limit parking in the Las Tunas Beach area. The report notes that since the No Parking signs were posted, the number of overnight and long-term vehicles in the area have decreased dramatically.

In May, the council considered implementing a Safe Parking Program that would create a supervised space near Las Tunas Beach where people would be allowed to spend the night in their cars, but the council decided that the question was too big and the public too impassioned for to be decided in a virtual meeting.