If you love Malibu, you’re feeling the brutal loss of that row of beautiful houses burnt to the ground along Pacific Coast Highway.
And…
Sea level rise is coming.
These days it’s hard in Malibu to do much of anything but feel the after image of fire, to see ruins, shriveled trees and mud debris.
And yet, many fire survivors are digging deep to rebuild. It’s home.
But others are doing the math and looking at the long hard process for financing, permitting, design, construction and putting up their burnt lots for sale.
L.A. has a once in a generation opportunity to do the right thing here.
The larger community can offer to purchase sites from willing sellers, clean up the lost homes and return the beach to itself.
Because of the Palisades Fire, the time to develop a site specific property-by-property approach to tackling sea level rise is now.
Sacramento, L.A. County, MRCA, SMMC, California State Parks, The Nature Conservancy or an altogether new entity, as a community, we need to explore creating a funding entity or working with one that will allow the citizens of California to invite willing property owners to sell burned out homes along the coast of Malibu to the State of California.
Upon purchase, the fund would also need to cover work by California or State Parks or another appropriate entity to remove the detritus and restore the beach / nearshore habitat.
It would be wise to make this buyout offer in highly inaccessible repeat burn areas in the Santa Monica Mountains and within the footprint of the Eaton fire as well.
Focusing on the shoreline is critical due to impending sea level rise.
The courage of willing sellers to accept a buyout would reduce fire risk for the county as a whole.
Can our society pivot to support willing property owners along PCH by offering opportunities to sell to the State of California to address future flooding and restore beach habitat / near shore habitat in advance of impending sea level rise?
Who will lead this conversation?
Let’s create room for our coast to survive and thrive.
Water Committee, Sierra Club