The Palisades-Malibu YMCA and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy were caught short last week by a surprise question at the California Coastal Commission meeting in Newport Beach. The Y had hoped that the commissioners would vote on its application to divide the 56.78 acres in Temescal Canyon owned by the Conservancy into two lots (3.95 and 52.83 acres) and give ownership of the smaller parcel to the Y, while also allowing the Y to continue its annual pumpkin and Christmas tree sales at the corner of Sunset and Temescal Canyon Rd. Instead, several commissioners asked whether the Conservancy did have a legal obligation to sell the property to the YMCA. ‘This [contract] seemed pretty well established, so the commission’s general counsel hadn’t even been asked to review the documents,’ YMCA lawyer Tom Larmore said Tuesday. Unable to see proof, the commission voted to continue the issue. The legal arrangement came about in 1985 when the original owners of the property, the Presbyterian Synod, gave the YMCA an option to acquire the subject property and continue using the property. Then in 1994, the Synod sold the entire property to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, which agreed to honor the Y’s options to acquire the subject 3.95-acre portion and the continued shared use and maintenance of the swimming pool. ‘Over the last 20 years, the Y has paid approximately $200,000 to keep their option,’ Larmore said. ‘They have been paying $10,000 a year since 1994. ‘Ironically, because we are in litigation [with opponents of the split], the day after the meeting the Conservancy’s lawyers sent us a copy of the brief, which states in three different places that the Conservancy does indeed have a binding contract.’ Larmore said that the Y’s application will probably be rescheduled for the Coastal Commission’s June meeting in Long Beach.
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