Khosla relents, reopens access to surfing spot
A billionaire landowner who had blocked access to a beach near Half Moon Bay opened the gate leading to the sandy shore Wednesday, two days after legal papers were filed demanding he comply with a court order.
The decision by venture capitalist Vinod Khosla to finally allow the public to use the only road leading to picturesque Martins Beach was touted as a victory for surfers and sunbathers, but lawyers say it probably isn’t the end of a decade-long battle over the sandy cove.
“I think this man is so embarrassed by his conduct that somebody must have said to him, ‘open the gate and let the courts figure it out down the line,’ ” said Joseph Cotchett, the lead attorney for the nonprofit Surfrider Foundation, which sued Khosla in 2013, arguing that the shoreline had been open to all comers since at least 1918 and belonged to the public.
Cotchett filed papers Monday urging the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco to enforce its ruling in August saying Khosla had no right to block public access without first obtaining a permit. Failure to unlock the gate would mean daily fines.
Cotchett claims the cofounder of Sun Microsystems and his lawyers are attacking the California Coastal Act, the law established by the state Legislature in 1976 to protect public access to the shoreline.
“It’s a big victory for all the people, because it’s not just about Martins Beach,” he said. “The whole state is watching this — all the beach communities up and down the coast.”
Khosla’s lawyers could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but they told the court in August that any interference by the state with 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 propertyrights rulings.
The expectation is that the case will eventually be appealed to the top court. But Khosla and his attorneys have, if anything, been cagey about what they hope to achieve or how they intend to achieve it.
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 gate leading to nearly 90 acres of his coastal property 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. The August decision by the San Francisco appeals court affirmed a 2014 ruling by a San Mateo judge who ordered Khosla to let the public into the comely cove.
The contentuous case has drawn in politicians and a variety of government and regulatory agencies including the California Coastal Commission, which defended the public’s right to use the beach. The Legislature recently passed a bill that would allow, under certain circumstances, the state to seize the access road through eminent domain, but Gov. Jerry Brown has not yet signed it into law.
“It's money and arrogance that makes them think they can close to the public a beach,” Cotchett said. “It would be like somebody buying Yosemite and saying to the public ‘you can't use it anymore.’ ”