In a victory for beach access advocates, but a legal quagmire for beachfront property owners, the California Coastal Commission (CCC) approved a Land Use Plan for Malibu on Friday that includes opening beach accessways every 1,000 feet along Malibu beaches.
The issue of beach access in Malibu is so controversial that it has been widely reported in papers such as the New York Times, and is repeatedly the satirical subject of L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez, and was recently the subject of a Doonesbury cartoon.
For years the CCC has required beachfront property owners were required to dedicate part of their land for accessways to the beach in order to receive permits to build from the CCC. Many of those Offers to Dedicate (OTD) were made years ago and only now is the Coastal Commission trying to open them before the OTDs expire. Property owners are concerned about privacy, safety and other issues such as trash, graffiti and lack of restrooms.
Malibu resident David Geffen initiated a lawsuit recently to prevent the opening of a beach accessway near his beachfront compound, claiming it is unsafe for the public who have to cross four lanes of highway, has limited parking, no bathrooms and no lifeguard. The City of Malibu has joined Geffen in the lawsuit, also citing concerns of public safety and management. The nonprofit group, Access for All was granted the right to open and maintain the accessway.
Geffen had agreed to provide the accessway more than 19 years ago in exchange for adding on to his home.
A previous ruling that may affect his case was the 1987 case of Nollan v. California Coastal Commission, which occurred four years after Geffen made the dedication. The Supreme Court called the CCC’s requirement of donating land for access in exchange for permits “extortion” and forbid the practice.
“We certainly support public access,” Geffen spokesperson Andy Spahn said.
“He’s [Geffen] given full lateral access. The beaches are public and access exists currently. But what is appropriate and meaningful access?” Spahn asked.
Members of the La Costa Beach Homeowners Association have been battling the issue of access, and lost recently in the Court of Appeal. They objected to a slice of La Costa Beach property that was recently given to the public by Eli Broad, Nancy Daly Riordon (wife of the former Los Angeles mayor) and entertainment giant Haim Saban, who donated the land in exchange for three view-obstructing mansions to be built at Carbon Beach.
The La Costa Beach Homeowners Association challenged the CCC and the Coastal Conservancy’s decision to grant the permits for the three mansions. The La Costa beach lot is rocky and in a dangerous spot at the end of PCH’s most perilous blind curve, according to the homeowners.
While the Superior Court sided with the homeowners, stating that the CCC “violated the coastal act” by allowing the exchange, the Court of Appeals overturned the lower court’s decision and sided with the CCC, allowing the deal to proceed.
The California Coastal Commission’s approval of the Malibu Coastal Plan last week will increase the commission’s control over Malibu’s development and beach access issues.
“The city should have been consulted about the accessway,” Spahn said, who added that environmental and traffic studies are needed to make such decisions. “We recognize it’s a public beach-all the beaches are,” Spahn said.
Andy Stern, Malibu councilmember and chairman of Los Angeles County Beach Commission, agrees.
“In my mind, the City of Malibu should be involved in their [CCC’s] plan,” Stern said. “Before opening accessways, a plan for maintaining it should be in place.”
Stern said certain questions should be answered before any accessway is opened to the public.
“What’s the plan?” he asked. “Who’s going to maintain it? What about liability insurance? We want to ensure a safe, clean, sanitary beach experience for every visitor,” Stern said, citing the high costs for maintaining beach accessways as an additional issue for consideration.
“It costs L.A. County more than $30,000 a year to maintain beach access,” said Stern, who is concerned that agencies like Access For All that accept the offers to dedicate, and agree to maintain the accessways, do not have the resources needed to manage the beach accessways. “Access For All has no employees, no ability to clean it up,” Stern said.
Steve Hoye of Access for All strongly disagrees.
“The real issue is about money,” he said in a recent New York Times article. “These people who live on the beach here think that the public cannot be trusted to walk or swim in front of these million-dollar homes.”
Hoye and Sara Wan, chair of the California Coastal Commission, refused to comment for this article.