Beach Curfews Need State OK, Panel Warns

Responding to a growing trend among local governments to limit beach access through curfews, parking lot closures and other means, the California Coastal Commission has issued a warning that such curfews are illegal without commission approval.

In a letter sent to 73 cities and counties situated on the state’s 1,100-mile coastline, the commission also indicated that it will not approve any long-term closures.

“The commission is extremely sensitive to the budgetary and public safety concerns of local governments,” wrote Peter Douglas, the commission’s executive director. “At the same time, the commission must carefully balance those concerns against broader public interests relative to public use of and access to public coastal resources such as beaches and state waters.

“It is for this reason, among others, that the commission has not approved any request to close public beaches to the public on a continuing basis. On the other hand, the commission has approved the closure of public beach parking lots at certain hours during the night.”

Except in the case of Long Beach, where the commission rejected tougher curfew rules earlier this year, Douglas said the commission has not taken a position on the specific actions of cities and counties that have imposed curfews or taken other actions that affect beach access.

“We haven’t gone that far,” Douglas said. “All we’ve said is that we consider them illegal under the Coastal Act.”

Officials in many beach communities said they do not expect to be affected by the commission’s decision. In Orange County, however, where several cities toughened their curfews last spring, reaction to the commission’s decision was largely negative.

In Santa Monica beach parking lots are closed from 2 to 6 a.m. and an ordinance prohibits loitering or sleeping on the beach from midnight until 5 a.m., but “the beaches do not close,” said Barbara Stinchfield, assistant director of community and cultural services.

Similarly, the lack of beach curfews in the South Bay meant most officials there were unworried by the action. “We basically are probably one of the most accessible coastal areas in the state as far as having facilities for parking and beach recreation and coastal recreation,” said Redondo Beach Harbor Director Ray Koke.

But Seal Beach Councilman William J. Doane said the state is overstepping its authority. “There are already so many state agencies dictating what the city must do that it’s pathetic,” he said.

Doane said he continues to support Seal Beach’s 10 p.m.-to-4:30 a.m. curfew as a way of reducing crime in the beach area at night.

“I could see how (the commission) would want to regulate it if this was a state beach. But it’s not. The city pays for all the upkeep of the beach. It’s a city issue, not a state issue,” Doane said.

Ron Hagan, director of community services in Huntington Beach, said that “if the Coastal Commission is now going to mandate operational hours and procedures, then they better be prepared to fund them. We’d like nothing better (than) to open the beaches 24 hours a day if we had the money and staff.”

Hagan said Huntington Beach is trying to organize a meeting next month with other Orange County coastal cities to discuss the commission’s position and find a way of speaking with a “collective voice.”

Mike Tope, chief ranger for the Orange Coast district of the state Department of Parks, Beaches and Recreation, said district officials plan no changes in the 10 p.m. curfew at Bolsa Chica and Huntington Beach state parks unless they are forced to make them.

“We’ve only got a certain amount of resources to operate these beaches and maintain a safe environment,” he said. “We have to work within our resources.”

Douglas said the commission understands that urban violence has begun to spill onto the beaches of Southern California. Police chiefs, city officials and county authorities have the ability to temporarily shut down beaches or impose temporary curfews, he said.

“Nothing in what we have said here interferes with or prevents a law enforcement agency from taking any and all actions it deems necessary to address a particular public safety emergency, including any action to close to all public use a beach, parking facility or park,” Douglas wrote in his Oct. 29 letter.

“Similarly . . . if a local government takes an action to close a public facility pursuant to a legally approved declaration of ‘public nuisance,’ no (commission approval) is required. We should caution, however, commission staff will look carefully at any action using the ‘public nuisance’ exception.”

But what is troubling, Douglas said in an interview Tuesday, is that there seems to be a growing trend among local governments to limit beach access, and no one has been keeping track of such actions at the state level.

Some parking ordinances in beach cities have been decided on nothing more than complaints by neighbors, he said, at a time when a growing population demands greater access to coastal areas.

“The problem is when there’s a long-term restriction on the use of beach or coastal areas . . . that is the kind of change we have to review under the Coastal Act,” Douglas said. “The commission is attempting to strike a balance between local governments and the public’s right to beach access.”

Under the 1972 California Coastal Act, Douglas said, a coastal development permit is required when, among other things, a “change in the intensity of use of water, or of access” is being considered.

Tight budgets, as well as a spate of brawls and a few shooting incidents at beaches, prompted the state Department of Parks and Recreation to impose a curfew at state beaches in Orange County last April. It decided to close Huntington and Bolsa Chica state beaches two hours earlier, at 10 p.m.

The cities of Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and Seal Beach, which had curfews of 11 p.m. or midnight, promptly followed suit, fearing that those turned away from the state beaches might just move down the sand.

Since the mid-1950s, Long Beach had closed its beaches from midnight to 5 a.m. But when it imposed a curfew in June that began two hours earlier, the new restriction was rejected by the commission, which ruled that the city did not have good reason to close its beaches at night or reduce hours in most of the parking lots.

Long Beach officials said they did not know they were required to secure a permit from the Coastal Commission before restricting access to beaches or beach parking lots.

“Some local jurisdictions have had this curfew for decades,” Douglas said. “In the case of Long Beach, it predated the establishment of the commission. But it was modified only this year . . . and that’s what the commission said they couldn’t do without a permit.

“My guess is we’ll be dealing with lots of them in the future.”

The Orange County-based Surfrider Foundation voiced support for the Coastal Commission’s intent to monitor the growing number of beach curfews, fee increases and restrictions.

“It certainly concerns us,” said Pierce Flynn, a Surfrider spokesman at the organization’s national office in San Clemente. “We’re an environmental group of beach users of all types--beach combers, windsurfers, divers and surfers. And, to be honest, quite a number of our groups use the beaches at night.”

Flynn said Surfrider is negotiating with the state of New York to help regain beach access on Long Island. Locally, Surfrider has gotten involved in preventing closures or limited access in Malibu, and recently at Seal Beach where the Navy attempted to close Surfside Beach to surfers and residents.

“We’re concerned that the people who use the beach responsibly get access,” Flynn said.

Douglas said cities should contact the commission to determine if their restrictions require a coastal development permit.

“If one is required,” he said, “ . . . we have to determine what steps they next need to take.”

Times staff writer Kim Kowsky and correspondent G. Jeanette Avent contributed to this story.