Billionaire Sean Parker calls Big Sur wedding flap ‘agonizing’

MENLO PARK, Calif. — In their first joint interview since their multimillion-dollar Big Sur wedding drew controversy and a $2.5-million Coastal Commission fine, billionaire Napster founder Sean Parker and his newlywed wife, Alexandra Lenas, said they tried to do everything right to ensure their event was environmentally sensitive.

For the former Facebook president’s June wedding, the couple trucked in plants and flowers, dug an artificial pond and erected a stone bridge and elevated dance floor amid the old-growth forest near the Ventana Inn & Spa.

The one thing they did not do was apply for a permit.

But the couple said Tuesday that their wedding was magical and environmentally sensitive.

“It’s really sad how little old-growth is left,” said Lenas, a singer-songwriter.

Parker told The Times that the couple enlisted the Save the Redwoods League for help in finding a suitable locale to tie the knot. (He previously had donated $250,000 to the group.) The league suggested the Ventana campground, Parker said, because it was partially paved and out of service.

“Save the Redwoods League sent their chief scientist down to look at it and provide us with a plan to do this in an eco-sensitive way,” Parker said. “So much of the press accused us of eco-trashing.… We couldn’t have been more conscientious about our approach. We went out of our way to do this the right way.”

Parker and Lenas leased the campground in November and began building an elaborate set for the wedding in March — at a cost of about $4.5 million.

Then, less than three weeks before the big event, the Coastal Commission called Ventana, Parker said. And Ventana called him.

“They said we needed to stop work and couldn’t go on with the wedding,” he said, sitting with Lenas in a Menlo Park location that they requested remain undisclosed. (The couple postponed their Bora Bora honeymoon to deal with the hubbub.) “I had never heard of the Coastal Commission at that point. I hadn’t heard of the Coastal Act of 1976. I wasn’t around in 1976.”

So Parker hired attorney Rick Zbur, chairman of the California League of Conservation Voters, and worked toward the settlement with the commission. Lenas called the days leading up to the wedding “devastating.”

“This was a very agonizing 20-day period,” Parker said. “For most of it, we thought the wedding wouldn’t happen at all.… The Coastal Commission quickly discovered the hotel was not in compliance and that became the focal point.” After that, the couple got clearance from the panel to proceed with their ceremony.

Parker said that he and Lenas — who is in the process of changing her last name — felt as if they were caught in the middle. They had worked with the hotel for months, he said, but the Ventana Inn staff never said any permits were needed. And their contract included a provision that Parker indemnify the hotel for any costs related to the wedding.

“If I hadn’t been a high-profile person with resources,” he said, “I wouldn’t be held up for … something I didn’t do.”

Under the terms of the settlement, Parker will pay $1 million to address the liabilities related to the unpermitted construction.

In addition, Parker will pay “a minimum of $1.5 million” to fund online conservation or public access efforts as a way to mitigate Ventana’s six-year campground closure. One possibility is a statewide mobile device app akin to the one focused on Malibu’s beaches.

And Ventana Inn has agreed to reopen the campground no later than October 2014.

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Twitter: @marialaganga

maria.laganga@latimes.com