California homeowners raise stakes – and a fence – in beach access battle
A beachfront homeowners association in northern California locked in a longstanding feud over public access to the beach has drawn a line in the sand: a chain-link fence.
Late last year, the California coastal commission doled out a $4.7m fine to the community in Santa Cruz county for blocking beach access, in a clear message that the HOA should remove the barriers it had set upon a path giving access to the Pacific Ocean.
Instead, the Rio Del Mar Beach Island Homeowners Association last month erected a sturdier chain-link fence with green plastic panels to block people from using the path, which travels in front of homeowners’ condos.
It’s one of several fierce fights between homeowners and the public over access to the state’s iconic beaches. The tug-of-war between the homeowners association and the coastal commission goes back decades. In 1980, when storms damaged a retaining wall between the beachfront homes’ patios and Seacliff state beach, the homeowners formed an HOA and applied for a permit from the coastal commission to rebuild. The coastal commission issued the permit, under the condition that the HOA allow public access along the path between the patios and the retaining wall.
By 1982, the HOA was blocking access to that path. In 2002, the commission began to file violations about obstruction of the path. In 2018, a fence was torn down by county workers, which was called “unconstitutional” by lawyers for the HOA.
Last year, the two groups clashed in superior court, which ruled the path was private – putting its decision at odds with the commission. The HOA’s attorneys argued that the coastal commission, a quasi-judicial body appointed by elected officials, cannot overrule a superior court judge’s decision. The commission said that its permit more than 40 years ago had been conditional upon the path being open to everyone.
Beaches in California are publicly owned on the water side of the high tide line, but many communities – from Malibu to northern California – have historically made it difficult for people to reach the coastline to enjoy it.
“Whether it’s trash cans blocking the sidewalk in front of the Beach Drive homes or newly erected fences blocking the coastal walkway, it sure seems like a lot of time, effort and money is being spent to prevent any sort of safe, public access to the area,” supervisor Zach Friend, who represents Rio Del Mar and has long advocated for the area as a public access point, told the Santa Cruz Sentinel.