NEWPORT BEACH : Property Extending Onto Beach Argued

Beachfront residents who have extended their property onto public beaches--in some cases building wooden decks or whirlpool baths--clashed this week with residents who think they should pay for the privilege.

More than 70 residents at a Planning Commission meeting debated the fate of 295 oceanfront properties from the Santa Ana River to the Balboa Peninsula which extend onto public sand.

The California Coastal Commission has required the city to create a policy to police such violations.

Some residents criticized a proposal allowing violators to pay an annual fee to keep their additions, some of which had been developed over several decades.

“The improvements enhance their property at the public’s expense,” said resident John Hedges, who referred to the offenders as “squatters.”

He said that the value of the public land used should be appraised and a much higher fee charged the encroachers.

But others supported the proposal, pointing out that beachfront property owners have built small walls beyond their property for several decades to guard against blowing sand and storm tides, without comment from city officials.

They also said that ordering patios to be demolished would be unnecessarily antagonistic, and that the land reclaimed was not likely to ever be used by the beach-going public.

The Planning Commission’s citizen advisory committee proposed that the city grant annual permits for encroachments up to 15 feet.

More than 60 homes exceed this limit (some encroach up to 27 feet) and those property owners would have to tear down anything built beyond it.

Although commission members had hoped to make their recommendation to the City Council final, the Coastal Commission suggested in a letter this week that it would not allow any encroachment unless a public sidewalk was added.

Planning commissioners said they received the letter too late to publicize the Coastal Commission’s comments and decided to postpone a recommendation until Aug. 9.