Capistrano Bay : Woman Files Claim Over District Legal Fees

A resident has filed a claim against the Capistrano Bay Community Services District alleging that the district paid thousands of dollars in legal fees for private individuals.

The claim, filed by Rosemarie Jane Pryke, says the district paid the fees for a group battling with the California Coastal Commission over public access to their beaches.

It asks for a total of $100,000 in class damages for the 200 property owners in the exclusive beachfront community.

Pryke claims that the fees went to support the “Capistrano 13,” a group of homeowners who in 1980 built seawalls to protect their homes from fierce storms but then refused to comply with the Coastal Commission’s demand that they relinquish part of their beach in return for permits for the seawalls.

In 1981, the state attorney general sued the residents, seeking $15,000 from each defendant plus $1,000 per day as long as the Coastal Act violations continued.

Attorney Charles Greenberg, who represented 12 of the 13 homeowners, said their legal costs “were borne by the Capistrano Bay 13. But it became apparent that what was needed was a beach-wide plan acceptable to all owners of units and to the Coastal Commission for handling access to the beach.”

The services district then hired Greenberg to negotiate an overall coastal development plan with the Coastal Commission. The costs of formulating that plan, Greenberg said, were the district’s responsibility.