Reinforcing Beach Access

California’s 1,100-mile coastline is a public treasure, by law and by custom. The rich have no more right to the sand, at least below the high-tide mark, than the poor. This shouldn’t need restating but it does, because wealthy landowners are struggling on every front to keep the beaches to themselves.

Their campaign is not always direct. For instance, not a single individual or group is on the record as opposing state Sen. Richard Polanco’s SB 1962, a modest measure that largely reiterates the state’s obligation to ensure that beachgoers can get to California’s beaches. Even so, behind-the-scenes lobbying to eviscerate or kill the bill has almost succeeded in recent months.

The beach bill is scheduled for a full Assembly vote today. If it is approved, it goes to the governor. But it could fail if lobbyists for wealthy beachfront property owners and the communities they live in keep the heat on lawmakers. Their argument is basically that the property deeds of people lucky enough to own waterfront homes entitle them to private strips of ocean as well.

In California, the sand seaward of the high-tide line has always belonged to the public because of the state’s Mexican and Spanish legal heritage. Beachgoers have a limited right to pass across private property. Over the years, beachfront property owners have dedicated hundreds of public access paths in exchange for permission to remodel or expand their homes. For these offers to mean something, the state has to formally accept them, a time-consuming legal process, and then find a government or private agency to keep the stairways or paths clean and repaired--and in some cases, provide restrooms for swimmers.

The folks who want to sunbathe on their decks or drink their martinis in perfect solitude have blocked the state at every turn. Their goal has been to run out the clock on these access offers, most of which expire after 21 years, by challenging the state’s authority in court at every procedural step toward opening an access path and sometimes just by padlocking their gates. State lawyers have simply been outgunned.

Polanco’s bill would strengthen the public’s hand. It would obligate the state to accept all access offers before they expire. It would direct the California Coastal Conservancy, the state body that administers access, to open at least three access ways each year. Finally, it would clarify what sorts of nonprofit groups the conservancy could turn to for management of the paths.

Polanco’s legislation preserves a cherished public right. There’s no question that it should pass and Gov. Gray Davis should sign it.