Watered-down Martins Beach bill advances
Panel OKs plan that no longer calls for use of eminent domain
SACRAMENTO — Though a bill to allow public access at Martins Beach cleared a major legislative hurdle Tuesday, it was considerably watered down after successful lobbying by representatives of the property’s owner, high-tech billionaire Vinod Khosla.
The proposed legislation, SB 968, originally would have instructed the State Lands Commission to take over a private road on the coastal property by 2016 if Khosla didn’t agree to restore the public’s ability to visit the beach. The latest version of the bill would merely ask the commission to consider purchasing Martins Beach Road
or some other form of access.
The author of the bill, Peninsula state Sen. Jerry Hill, said the legislation didn’t have the votes Tuesday to pass out of the Assembly Judiciary Committee without the change because of heavy lobbying by Rusty Areias, a former Northern California assemblyman who now represents Khosla on behalf of his powerful firm, California Strategies.
Though the bill would no longer require the State Lands Commission to use its power of eminent domain, Hill said, it would at least compel the commission to take on the matter.
“This keeps the bill alive and keeps the conversation going,” said Hill, D-San Mateo. “The issue will have to come to (the commission’s) attention in a meaningful and thoughtful way by Jan. 1, 2016.”
California Strategies had sought to neuter the bill completely, requesting an amendment during Tuesday’s hearing to strike any mention of eminent domain — the government’s ability to force a sale of private property for public purposes. Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, backed the amendment and asked Hill to adopt it, but Hill declined.
Areias told the committee that Khosla would be willing to discuss allowing public access, but only if eminent domain is off the table.
“This isn’t a man who is going to be shamed or blackmailed,” said Areias, who previously served as director of the California Department of Parks and Recreation and chairman of the California Coastal Commission. “Mr. Khosla has always been open to public access — he’s made that very clear.”
Assemblyman Mark Stone, D-Scotts Valley, said he didn’t have confidence that Khosla would negotiate access unless compelled.
“You should know better than to say, ‘Trust me,’” Stone told Areias, “because when an elected official or politician says, ‘Trust me’— then, no, we probably shouldn’t.”
Areias told the committee that the entire Martins Beach property is private, including the tidelands, or the portion of the beach between the high and low tide lines. California law holds the public has the right to access tidelands.
But Khosla claims his property is exempt from that provision, because Martins Beach passed into private hands, without any public easements, before the United States acquired California in 1848. The venture capitalist argues his property line actually extends more than 200 feet out to sea, because that’s where the beach was located before coastal erosion chewed it back.
Hill’s proposed law, which already passed the Senate, now heads to the Assembly Appropriations Committee as early as next week. If the bill ultimately passes the Assembly and is signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, its fate will rest with the three men who make up the State Lands Commission: Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, state Controller John Chiang, and state Finance Director Michael Cohen.
Meanwhile, attorneys are preparing for closing arguments in a trial over public access at the beach, which Khosla acquired in 2008. The Surfrider Foundation sued Khosla to force him to seek a coastal development permit for closing the road leading to the beach, located several miles south of Half Moon Bay.