Grounds for Concern for Seacliff Residents
When Doris Johnson first drove up to this wind-swept strip of coastline to see about leasing some land, a single cottage in the sand dunes was all that marked the site of the future beach colony.
Today, 49 years later, Seacliff has evolved from a funky row of casual cottages to a thriving village and upscale vacation getaway for people from Ventura County, the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles. Several generations have raised families, shared barbecues and traded gossip to the sounds of squawking gulls and churning surf.
“It’s a little corner of heaven, that’s all,” said Johnson, who splits her time between Seacliff and a home in Santa Rosa.
But now Johnson and her neighbors worry that their corner of heaven may be yanked out from under them. The problem is that while the Seacliff residents own the beach-side houses they live in, they don’t own the ground underneath.
That belongs to Seacliff Land Co., which after a century is planning to sell.
Some longtime residents worry the lots will be so pricey they will have to put their homes on the market.
“I want to buy but I don’t know if I can afford to,” said John Poltere, who owns one of the 49 homes in the small community eight miles north of Ventura.
Although the landowners have promised to negotiate a fair price, residents say they won’t relax until they see a written proposal. Rick Hambleton, a partner in Seacliff Land Co., said the company will unveil its terms this summer.
Residents say they don’t know what is going to happen, because they have been given so few details, including whether steep rent hikes on existing leases will occur. Some are elderly and get by on fixed incomes. Louisa Kinnebrew, 75, a 35-year resident, said the thought of a mortgage frightens her.
“My home is paid off and I don’t like to owe anything,” said Kinnebrew, a part-time Realtor.
Seacliff is the only Rincon beach colony still in lease. For decades, pioneer families who owned large tracts of oceanfront property leased them to friends, and later strangers, as weekend retreats. But over the past 25 years, all the other leases have been sold.
The partners in Seacliff Land Co. are descended from William Dewey Hobson, known as the father of Ventura County. A businessman and rancher, Hobson pushed for the county’s formation in 1873.
“This is a significant change in the history of the county,” said Ventura attorney Lindsay Nielson, who represented pioneer Manuel Faria’s descendants when their coastal property at Faria Beach, three miles south of Seacliff, was sold to tenants in 1981.
“There is simply not going to be any more oceanfront property available for lease,” Nielson said.
Homeowner Poltere agrees. “We’re talking oceanfront, white-water views. Nobody can block our view. It’s like the condors--it’s a dying commodity.”
Monthly Rent Under $1,000 for Tenants
Over the years, some leaseholders have asked for the chance to buy their lots, Hambleton said. Others were content with the arrangement. It allowed them to live at the water’s edge for a modest price. All of the residents pay less than $1,000 a month in rent, Hambleton said.
The proposed land sale was actually provoked by residents who asked for longer leases, said Poltere, who sits on a lease committee for the homeowners’ association. Leases expire in 2020 for 40 homeowners and in 2030 for the remaining nine.
During negotiations last fall, Hambleton came back with something unexpected: an offer to sell the land to the homeowners. Some residents were elated to finally have the option, but others panicked, Poltere said.
Hambleton declined to provide specific details of the proposed deal, but said the owners will not throw anyone out and believe they are “doing something pretty nice.”
“We’re trying to find a way to reasonably present this to them that is going to be fair for the owners as well as the lessees,” he said.
Indeed, depending on the price of the lots, homeowners who can afford to buy will instantly see the value of their homes increase, Realtors say. With stricter development laws, construction on prime beachfront property has slowed at the same time that demand has grown, said Marty Harder of Helen Yunker Realty in Ventura.
“The same is true whether you are in Malibu, Hermosa Beach or Ventura County,” said Harder, who specializes in coastal properties. “And Seacliff is the last little patch of oceanfront land available up there.”
The big question is how much Seacliff Land Co. will ask for the lots. Hambleton is not saying. But fair market value for an average 40-foot-wide beachfront plot on the Rincon is between $500,000 and $750,000, according to Bruce Gray, Ventura County’s chief deputy assessor.
It’s easy, however, to sell vacant land. It gets stickier when dealing with tenants who have lived years, or even decades, in the homes above. A group of 3,500 wealthy Orange County homeowners filed a class-action lawsuit against the Irvine Co. in 1982 after a two-year fight over lease hikes.
In a settlement the following year, Irvine Co. agreed to sell the leased lots at huge discounts.
Although residential leases are common in condominiums and mobile home parks, it is rare to find Southern California beachfront homes built on top of leased land, real estate experts say.
Pressure to Sell Coastal Land Cited
There is tremendous pressure to sell coastal property, particularly when land passes from one generation to another and the tax bill arrives, Nielson said.
“If you’re trying to be a nice landlord and keep the rentals low, you hurt yourself when Uncle Sam comes along,” he said. “And when you try to sell, the tenants go up in arms.”
All along the Rincon, leases have been sold off in recent years. Solimar Beach converted in the early ‘70s after owner Buddy Wood died, said Norma Lagomarsino, who has lived there off and on since 1960. At one time, the property was owned by pioneer rancher Green B. Taylor.
The colony of Manuel Faria, a Portuguese immigrant and businessman who purchased the coastal land because it reminded him of the Azores, started as a weekend retreat for Santa Paula and Piru farmers who were friends of the Farias.
The first lease was for $25 a year, lawyer Nielson said.
By 1981, there were 130 homes and the family was ready to sell. The family offered financing and sold the entire tract to a trust set up by the Faria tenants.
Lagomarsino remembers how Solimar slowly transformed from a family beach to a more upscale enclave.
“They weren’t grand homes, but families would lease together and the kids would play all day,” she said. “Later, it was kind of a shock to everyone when the larger, more pretentious homes started going up.”
Beach life is not always paradise. Fierce storms can batter the homes in winter. Corrosion brought on by sea salt is a constant problem. And the dry sandy beach that once fronted Seacliff’s cottages disappeared in the ‘70s when construction of the Ventura Freeway changed the shape of the coastline and washed away the sand, residents say.
Still, freeway traffic is almost drowned out by the roar of surf. Seclusion, a tight community and an unobstructed view of the Channel Islands are delights that Johnson and other residents hope never to give up.
“The colors of the ocean, the sky, the islands. Each is a different shade every day,” Kinnebrew said. “Where can you have such beauty?”
