Court to landowner: Give public access to Martins Beach
A state appeals court ruled Thursday that a billionaire landowner had no right to block public access to a San Mateo County beach without first obtaining a permit, rejecting arguments that a forced opening would be tantamount to stealing his property.
The 50-page decision by the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco affirmed a 2014 ruling by a San Mateo judge who ordered Vinod Khosla to give the public access to picturesque Martins Beach, near Half Moon Bay, which Khosla owns.
It was the latest slap-down of Khosla in a long, increasingly heated legal dispute with the Surfrider Foundation, which sued the co-founder of Sun Microsystems after he shut the access gate leading to nearly 90 acres of his coastal property in 2010. The nonprofit group founded by surfers charged that the closure amounted to development, requiring a permit from the California Coastal Commission. A judge agreed, prompting Khosla’s appeal.
“The courts said exactly what the Legislature said: The public has the right to access the coast,” said Joseph Cotchett, the lead attorney for Surfrider, in a hastily arranged news conference in his Burlingame office. “It’s their ocean. It’s their coast. It is not some private billionaire’s.”
The battle, however, appears to be far from over. Neither Khosla nor his attorneys could be reached for comment, but they told the court that any interference by the state of his “fundamental right to exclude the public from private property” would be a type of confiscation — a “taking,” in legal terms — that requires compensation under U.S. Supreme Court property-rights rulings.
The expectation now is that the case will be appealed to the state’s high court.
“He’s attacking the California Coastal Act, is what he’s doing,” Cotchett said of the law established by the state Legislature in 1976 to protect public access to the shoreline. “Everyone knows this is not the end of the line . ... This is the little guy versus the big guy.”
The seashore tussle began when Khosla bought Martins Beach and the surrounding land from its longtime owners for $32.5 million in 2008. He shut the public access gate in September 2010, citing the cost of maintenance and liability insurance. The previous owners had admitted the public for at least 70 years.
The case has been a rollercoaster ride of accusations and rulings ever since.
A group called Friends of Martins Beach sued in San Mateo County Superior Court, and Judge Gerald Buchwald ruled in Khosla’s favor in 2013, saying the beach was subject to the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War and required the United States to recognize Mexican land grants. Buchwald said, in essence, that the beach had been in private hands long before laws were passed to require public access to the coast.
Buchwald’s decision was appealed. That same year, the nonprofit Surfrider Foundation also sued, arguing that the sandy shoreline had been open to all comers since at least 1918 and belonged to the public.
Then, in September 2014, Superior Court Judge Barbara Mallach ruled that Khosla’s failure to obtain a coastal development permit before blocking access to the beach was illegal — and ordered the gate reopened.
The unanimous decision by the three-judge panel Thursday concludes that the gate closure amounted to “development” of the property.
“One of the basic goals of the state for the coastal zone is to maximize public access to and along the coast and maximize public recreational opportunities in the coastal zone,” the judges stated in their opinion. “Maximizing access is the goal.”
Khosla has kept the gate mostly closed, despite the judge’s injunction, and has said he would provide beach access across a portion of his land if the state paid him $30 million. The gate remained closed Thursday, forcing visitors to walk around the barrier and along the road for a half mile to get to the beach, which was deserted except for giant swarms of pelicans and seagulls.
“They are making a mountain out of a molehill,” said Greta Waterman, who has rented one of the cabins on the beach for four years. “If they open it they have to have facilities, put up a friggin’ portapotty, hire a lifeguard so nobody gets drowned — and,” she added, “don't knock on my door to go to the bathroom.”
Legal experts say Khosla may be able to get a stay of the order if he appeals to the state Supreme Court, but Cotchett vowed to seek the help of the San Mateo County sheriff if he doesn’t open the gate by Friday.
“We’ll give him his day to think about it and cry,” he said.
Peter Fimrite and Steve Rubenstein are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: PFimrite@sfchronicle.com, SRubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @pfimrite, @steverubeSF