Court denies Martins Beach appeal review

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to hear an appeal of a lower court ruling that said billionaire Vinod Khosla must allow public access to Martins Beach in San Mateo County.

That beach, a perennially popular destination for day-trippers who would pay to park there and enjoy the Pacific shoreline, was purchased by Khosla in 2008. He erected “Beach closed, keep out” signs a year later, and legal battles commenced.

Khosla, who made his fortune as a co-founder of Sun Microsystems, has 90 days to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. But the state Supreme Court’s simple “Petition for review denied” was welcomed by attorneys for the Surfrider Foundation, the environmental group that was the plaintiff in the case.

“The fact that the state’s highest court isn’t going to review the decision is a huge victory,” said Eric Buescher of the law firm Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, which represents Surfrider. “It says that public resources should be accessible to the public. A billionaire can’t prevent you from going to a beach that has been accessible for 100 years.”

Attorneys for Khosla at the firm Hopkins & Carley did not respond to calls for comment.

In the ruling handed down in August, the First District Court of Appeal upheld a prior decision by the San Mateo Superior Court that Khosla could not arbitrarily end paid public access to the beach without first filing for a permit.

Instead, the gate from Highway 1 “must be unlocked and open to the same extent that it was unlocked and open at the time defendants purchased the property.”

According to Buescher, the gate has indeed been open periodically since the August appeal’s court ruling, with a charge of $10 to enter.