A local resident is considering filing an appeal against a Coastal Commission ruling that orders her to open up a dedicated public access way next to her home that would lead to the beach.
By Paul Sisolak / Special to The Malibu Times
Following a court order to open up a pathway at an exclusive residence near Carbon Beach, an attorney for resident Lisette Ackerberg said they are considering an appeal of a judge’s recent siding with the California Coastal Commission over a two-year-old mandate to clear an access point near her home. The pathway leads to the beach from Pacific Coast Highway but is blocked with shrubbery and a retaining wall. The commission had ruled in 2009 that restrictions violated the California Coastal Act.
For years the Coastal Commission has required beachfront property owners to dedicate part of their land for access ways to the beach in order to receive permits to build from the commission. Many of those Offers to Dedicate (OTD) were made years ago and in 2002 the Coastal Commission began trying to open them before the OTDs expired.
In addition, in September of 2002, the Coastal Commission approved a Land Use Plan for Malibu that included opening beach access ways every 1,000 feet along Malibu beaches.
The issue worries local property owners, who are concerned about privacy, safety and other issues such as trash, graffiti and lack of restrooms.
Diane Abbitt, Ackerberg’s attorney, and Steve Hoye, director of Access for All, said the recent move by coastal lawmakers shirks their responsibility by failing to open the access point themselves and pinning it on a private resident.
“It’s about equity and the law being equally applied,” Abbitt said. “It’s not fair that private citizens should be required to do what public agencies don’t do.”
Ackerberg’s estate, along with nonprofit Access for All, are also under scrutiny for an alleged deal that saw money change hands to ensure that the access point stayed shut.
However, the $250,000 that Ackerberg paid the nonprofit, Hoye said, was part of a settlement between both parties to put an end to a lawsuit by Access for All against the commission to obtain the easement from Ackerberg, which it did in 2003. Access for All is a group that purportedly works to open up beach access ways by obtaining the right to open and operate the easements. It successfully battled movie and music mogul David Geffen in 2005 to have an access way next to his home opened. The state and the nonprofit were on the same side in that effort.
Other portions of the fund, Hoye said, were to help pay for attorney’s fees and other costs associated with an Access for All lawsuit against Los Angeles County to open up a second public pathway 500 feet away on Carbon Beach.
Hoye said the parties reached this deal with Ackerberg when it was believed coastal commissioners were doing nothing to make access for beachgoers. Now, he noted, Access for All and Ackerberg are bearing the blame for it-what Hoye calls, “self righteous indignation” on behalf of commissioners.
“The Coastal Commission was horrified that I would make a negotiation with a homeowner,” Hoye said. “But it gave us the opportunity to open two access ways.”
However, neither access way is open at this point, and the county opposes opening the second one.
Regarding Hoye’s assertions, Aaron McClendon, an enforcement agent for the Coastal Commission, said, “We’ve been attempting to resolve this amicably.”
“There is no singling out of anyone,” McClendon added. “It was part of the condition the commission put on the [building] permit back in the 1980s. Decades later, they’re going back on their agreement to keep it open.”
The lawsuit against the county awaits further action until the Coastal Commission snafu clears up for good, but Access for All is pursuing the county’s Beaches and Harbors division over the other nearby access point.
A series of vertically mapped public access ways does not provide enough amenities for visitors on smaller, “very linear” beaches in Malibu, said Kerry Silverstrom, deputy director of Beaches and Harbors.
Eleven county-sanctioned access points remain open, as per older guidelines, but others, she said, stay closed, because it’s impractical to offer the same types of visitor services, such as bathrooms and trash cans, like at Zuma or Surfrider beaches, when other patches of sand aren’t widely used by the general public.
“For a long time, there has been a longstanding policy in our department that we do not believe the access ways are efficient or provide the kinds of access we want to provide,” Silverman said. “They’re vertical access ways without bathrooms, lifeguards, trash cans. We’ve agreed to not open any more.”
The Coastal Commission could not confirm when or how they’ll be carrying out their enforcement over opening up the access way at Carbon Beach, but the judge’s mandate will be upheld, McClendon said.
“It requires the owner to remove all the unpermitted development within the public access easement. That’s what we’ll be enforcing,” he said.