The Background: This Inappropriate Land Use is A Danger

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A 54,000 square foot commercial event facility is coming to Triunfo-Lobo Canyon unless we ACT NOW. The proposed project is an inappropriate land use and must not be allowed to proceed!

Unless we each step up, take notice, become active individually and collectively - with the power of our numbers – ensuring our voices are heard, this will be our new normal.

The Peace, Quiet, and Tranquility of Triunfo-Lobo will be coming to an end without your help. NOW!

Background

Beginning in 2012, Triunfo-Lobo Canyon became inundated with special event venues seeking to exploit the beauty of our Canyon at our individual and communal expense.

Non-resident commercial operators panning for quick-strike gold purchased Equestrian and other large properties in the Resort & Recreation (R-R) zoned areas creating massive wedding/commercial event facilities, where none had existed previously.

First one, then another and finally 3-4 event venues were simultaneously operating three nights a week until well past midnight, ten-plus months of the year. Two hundred or so events every year.

During the events, the canyon population swelled four to five times, increasing the bottleneck at our lone ingress/egress at the corner of Triunfo & Kanan. Throw in the blaring music escalating from competing venues and screaming party-goers, a combined mind-numbing racket bouncing off and cascading from the rocky walls of our canyons, our homes became the antithesis of the characteristics that drew us here.

The environment of the Canyon deteriorated quickly. Residents could not enjoy their properties as their evenings were hijacked by the loud unruly events and Canyon, the dark skies were lit up and wildlife disappeared.

At the behest of Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, the County of Los Angeles began drafting an updated North Area Plan, which in conjunction with L.A. County's General Plan, defined how properties in the Santa Monica Mountains could be utilized.

Businesses like Brookview Ranch scoffed at the prospect of any oversight and hired lobbyists and high-priced attorneys to attempt to influence the final draft.

At that point, a small group of committed residents, who now comprise the group "Protect Our Canyons," led the charge to ensure that money didn't trump the environment, safety, and quality of life in the Canyon.

It was a long process. The process of revising the regulations in the Santa Monica Mountains consisted of multiple drafts, public meetings, hundreds of comments and discussions with officials. In addition, the small group put in long hours reading thousands of pages of documents, drafting comments, coordinating with other similarly situated groups while keeping property owners up-to-date.

Protect Our Canyons also hired representation to ensure the voices of Triunfo-Lobo residents were heard. They helped us secure a place at the bargaining table, ensuring that we were being heard at the highest levels. Not having done so, would have spelled a communal disaster.

It was expensive. Very expensive.

But the positive results, as detailed below, were stunning.

In 2019, the call for fundraising was put out and Triunfo-Lobo residents answered. Over $17,000 was raised, every dime of which went towards the lobbying firm Alpert, Barr & Grant.

Our efforts paid off.

But that was only 27% of the bill. The handful putting in the countless hours, researching, meeting and bargaining, ponied up the balance of the $65,000 tab.

The first draft of the Plan, released in the summer of 2017, would have allowed continuation of most egregious ongoing activities and EXPANDING events down LOBO CANYON.

The final version, however, curtails activities extensively while specifically banning special event facilities on Lobo Canyon.

Among our victories are 1) No Commercial Event Venues on Lobo Canyon Road; 2) No Outdoor Amplified Sound After 8 p.m.; 3) Dramatically Reduced levels of Amplified Sound allowable; 4) 3,000 Foot Distance Between Event Venues on Triunfo Canyon Road, thereby limiting the potential number of venues; and most importantly, 5) All Event Facilities Must go Through a CUP Process.

The last point is critical as residents, for the first time, have a legally mandated seat at the table and the ability to influence what conditions are imposed on venues before they are allowed to operate.

This has not stopped the desire of the business to expand their operations and their adverse impact on our Canyon. They continue to ignore the incompatibility between their business models and the peace and tranquility of our unique rural residential neighborhood.

And now, the first CUP application is on the docket. Brookview Ranch, at the corner of Triunfo and Lobo Canyon, has applied for a permit for a 54,000 square foot commercial event facility. 

The project describes events three nights a week, with up to 200 people per event and parking for 171 vehicles. All vehicles would be entering and leaving on the narrow, unlit, and unmarked Triunfo Canyon Road, heading toward the single ingress/egress at Kanan Road.

The same Kanan Road that is backed up for miles with beach traffic, now year-round on any sunny day.

During the NAP drafting process, a diagram was created showing the traffic backup in the Canyon which would occur during an emergency. With approximately 100 homes, the farthest one being more than 3 miles from the single egress, all but four property owners would be stuck behind party goers during an evacuation.

A large scale commercial operation in a tiny canyon of homes with a single ingress/egress is not only inappropriate, it is gravely dangerous.