“Free to Sit on the Sand,” your August 26 editorial, compliments and supports Sara Wan. Instead, she needs criticism.
When the Coastal Commission was created, Executive Director Peter Douglas established a policy of requiring beach owners to complete and record an Offer to Dedicate, a horizontal easement across their beach, as a condition to obtain a building permit (essentially blackmail). If the State wanted those private properties, it should have acquired them by eminent domain.
The Offers to Dedicate expire in about 25 years and in order to be effective require acceptance by a public entity or private organization of the responsibility and liability for operation of the beach area. Mostly, no public entity or private organization has wanted to assume those responsibilities. Ask Sara Wan whether the easement on which she sat was in fact dedicated.
The U.S. Supreme Court declared the Coastal Commission’s requirement to dedicate unconstitutional (Nolan Case) but did leave in effect the recorded Offers to Dedicate already obtained. Sara Wan as Coastal Commission Chair was arbitrary and unfair in the conduct of the requirements for the City of Malibu’s Coastal Development Plan, and the matter is being litigated. Sara Wan has few friends or supporters in Malibu.
Ralph W.Kiewitt Jr.