Excerpt from "Recommendations for Public Beaches"
A report submitted to the Citizens' Committee on Parks, Playgrounds, and Beaches by Olmsted Brothers and Bartholomew and Associates, Consultants
 |
| Mouth of Topanga Canyon, showing areas that should be publicly owned to care for the vast crowds that gather there, and showing an endless chain of autos extending down the beach, cutting off all view of the ocean from the passing travelers. Photo by Stagg Photo Service. |
21. Tuna Canyon Beach
At the point opposite the Hearst Private Road, there is a small area outside the highway with a tent, and eastward from there to Topanga Canyon for a mile and a half there are 65 small buildings on the narrow strip between the highway and the ocean. Some of these buildings on high timbers may be standing on public tidelands. All should be removed and all land should be publicly acquired.
22. Topanga Canyon Park Uplands
At the mouth of Topanga Canyon the small flat area now occupied by a number of small cottages is all needed for a park and picnic area and to hold a large number of automobiles that come to the shore. Here the value to the public would be very much greater as a public park than can be realized on the same area under private ownership.
23. Topanga Beach
From Topanga Canyon to the Los Angeles City line at the Parker Ranch Road for a distance of one mile there are 30 small buildings on the seaward side of the highway, with high cliffs on the other. The entire strip between the highway and the sea should be publicly owned, as it will have a far greater value for large numbers of people under public ownership.
[...] The bottom of the canyon also should be acquired to be kept for general recreation, relatively free from buildings throughout most of the distance, including all of the lowland at and near the mouth of the canyon, where a number of small cottages now occupy land that would otherwise have great value for the gathering of very large numbers of pleasure seekers around camp fires and stoves and in pleasant groves, with a few general buildings capable of caring for very large numbers of people.
