Why is brookview A THREAT to our community?

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The project poses a significant safety threat to all residents. With the population of canyon residents far exceeded by the number of party-goers, our chances of evacuating during an emergency will be hindered if not rendered completely impossible. The proposed Brookview Event Venue will create a life-threatening safety disaster in the event of a wildfire, like Woolsey which whipped through our community in 2018, leaving a path of destruction. Narrow, windy, unlit roads, and a single ingress/egress, which the County itself has designated as “inadequate", coupled with the lack of proper infrastructure of the canyon, makes this project entirely inappropriate. Catastrophic loss of life would surely result in the event of an emergency evacuation. 

Our single ingress/egress canyon community is in a high-fire severity zone. No emergency services or fire department support will enter our canyons in the event of a wildfire or natural disaster as it is far too dangerous. Triunfo + Lobo Canyon alone lost 29 structures and one life in the Woolsey Fire. The additional fire hazard risk from a 55k sq. ft. commercial event venue in our community would put every residents life at risk. Hundreds of nightly partygoers smoking, drinking, and leaving our narrow, unlit canyon roads drunk is a recipe for disaster. It only takes one commercial kitchen fire, one cigarette thrown into the brush, one car crash, one storage shed filled with propane tanks to explode to create a disaster that would result in staggering loss of life and property.

This proposed project includes events three nights a week with up to 200 attendees and 171 vehicles per event. The negative impact to our single ingress/egress would be significant.  It is already extremely difficult to exit our canyon during the summer months due to beach traffic, often times resulting in a 15-20 minute wait to exit onto Kanan. Also, the unique topography of our canyons creates an extreme amplification of sound. The noise from a commercial event venue (DJ, band, partygoers, set up/tear down) would make it impossible to enjoy the peace and tranquility that residents in our community moved here for. The deafening noise would not only destroy the quality of life in our canyons but it would drive out wildlife from the Santa Monica Mountains.

Brookview Ranch is seeking a permit for a 55,000 square foot commercial event facility at the corner of Triunfo + Lobo Canyon.  Additionally, the project seeks to construct a full-span bridge over Triunfo Creek, an S-1 habitat (the most sensitive of habitat designations), which would be crossed by hundreds of cars weekly. This proposed project, entailing lights and noise, is only 15,000 yards from the newly constructed $90 million wildlife corridor. Our canyon community is home to countless species of wildlife including mountain lions, bobcats, deer, eagles, condors, turkey vultures, endangered frogs, and so much more. These animals will be forced out of their natural habitat and put at risk if this commercial event venue is allowed to operate in this location. 

This inappropriate land use threatens this community and the very fabric of the Santa Monica mountains, which represent nature, wildlife and ecological balance. The project seeks to exploit R-R zoning, designed to encourage recreation and enjoyment of the nature of the Santa Monica mountains, to build a large-scale commercial event venue. 

The additional fire and evacuation hazards would put an undue burden on key designated evacuation routes and put all communities in the Santa Monica Mountains at risk. This project and its proposed zoning change would have a profound and permanent impact on Triunfo + Lobo Canyon and set a precedent by opening all of the Santa Monica Mountains for the influx of thousands, if not tens of thousands, of partiers every weekend. The dark skies will be lit up, the noise will drive protected wildlife out of the Santa Monica Mountains, resulting in devastating loss of life and irreparable environmental harm.