Coastal Commission Suit May Spur Resolution of Beach Access Dispute

A bitter, 6-year-old dispute between a group of South Laguna condominium owners and the California Coastal Commission over beach access may finally be headed toward resolution, a spokesman for the Blue Lagoon Homeowners Assn. said Tuesday.

Faced with a commission lawsuit--along with heavy fines and large legal bills--homeowners may be spurred to seek a compromise and allow some public access to a small, picturesque beach, according to Glenn Soelberg, a retired lawyer and former director of the homeowners group.

Coastal commissioners are “finally on the right track,” Soelberg said. “It’s got to be headed for a conclusion. Nobody ever wins a trial--if the state wins, it’s going to create a great amount of animosity. If they lose, they’ll just keep on appealing. This community is too small to stand up to them.”

The controversy came to a head earlier this month when the commission filed an unusual lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court, demanding public access to Blue Lagoon beachfront property and naming 119 individual condominium owners as defendants, rather than the homeowners group.

The lawsuit also asks that penalties of up to $10,000--plus $5,000 for each day of non-compliance with the commission’s access demands--be imposed on each condominium owner, plus exemplary damages.

In an earlier lawsuit, the commission had named the association as the defendant. However, the homeowners group said it did not have the authority to grant access to beach property held in common, because the land is owned by 119 different condominium owners and not by the homeowners association, as is usually the case in newer projects.

“We were unable to find a way to convey access unless there is unanimous agreement among the homeowners,” Charles Greenberg, attorney for the Blue Lagoon association, said. “So the attorney general felt he had to file a lawsuit against all of the homeowners for violation of the Coastal Act.”

The commission is seeking access to a postage stamp-sized beach, the tidelands seaward of a seawall and an alley behind a row of condominiums behind the seawall, so beachgoers could still walk to different parts of the beach when high tides would otherwise prevent it. Also, the commission is asking the Blue Lagoon homeowners to provide an easement to a neighboring pocket beach below the nearby Treasure Island trailer park.

These demands were attached to a coastal permit issued last February for work on a 2,500-ton concrete and rock seawall fortified by the homeowners group after the powerful storms of 1983.

An emergency permit had been issued when the work was done, but the Coastal Commission told the group at that time it would still have to apply for a regular permit which might stipulate conditions--including beach access--according to Deputy Atty. Gen. Steven H. Kaufmann.

The homeowners association sued the Coastal Commission this year, arguing that the work done on the seawall was necessary repair work and did not constitute new development, which ordinarily requires the granting of public access.

“It’s unconstitutional for the government to say: ‘Citizen, you have the right to save your house but you have to give up your yard,’ ” Greenberg said.

The Coastal Commission then filed its cross-complaint in early December against the individual condominium owners.

“People probably have not been intimately involved in this, nor have they been fully aware of the magnitude and the consequences of the dispute,” Kaufmann said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if some want to find some mechanisms to find resolution.”

The homeowners met last weekend to discuss their options. While no decision on how to proceed was reached, Soelberg said there was a large contingent willing to concede access to the beach area. But he also noted that the group does not want to build a stairway or bridge to the Treasure Island beach, or allow the public in the alley, where there are open carports and empty condominiums most of the year.

“There’s no safe way to cross over to the Treasure Island beach,” Soelberg said. “I know someone’s going to get hurt, and the homeowners are worried about the liability.”