Santa Cruz County homeowners face $4.7 million in fines for blocking public access to beach walkway
APTOS — A group of beachfront homeowners in Aptos are facing millions in potential fines levied by the California Coastal Commission following allegations that they have obstructed the public’s access to a walkway next to Seacliff State Beach for decades.
Citing violations as far back as 1982, the commission will weigh a staff recommendation to fine the Rio Del Mar Beach Island Homeowners Association – and its estimated 27-home membership, most of which are vacation rentals – more than $4.7 million. Allegations include blocking the public’s access to a 37-foot-wide, almost quarter-mile long stretch of walkway adjacent to the beach and failure to maintain native plants along a revetment abutting the walkway and row of properties.
Lisa Haage, chief of enforcement at the commission, confirmed it is the most costly Coastal Act penalty the agency has recommended in Santa Cruz County history.
“This type of violation particularly affects disabled persons, moms and dads pushing strollers and others who rely on walkways to be able to enjoy the coast,” wrote Haage. “It is also an issue of environmental justice — access to beaches and walkways are essential to providing low cost access to the coast for those who cannot afford to own homes along the coast but who still should be able to access and appreciate our gorgeous coastline.”
Named directly and often in the staff summary are Gaurav Singh and Sonal Puri, the owners of a property at 202 Beach Drive, which sits at the north-most tip of the row of homes and is just a stone’s throw from the roundabout and business center next to Aptos Creek.
Though it is not clear if Singh and Puri are part of homeowners association, the commission contends that the two entities have worked together to block the public’s access to the walkway where it begins at the 202 Beach Drive property by relying on makeshift barriers and signs including non-permitted plastic barriers and a seawall.
Deep history
Ahead of the commission’s meeting, scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday at the Dream Inn in Santa Cruz, commission staff wrote that “the members of the homeowners association have enjoyed private use of this area, have profited from their privatization of this walkway via vacation rentals, and advertise the area as private patios and a private walkway for their paying guests.”
According to the commission staff report, after a destructive winter storm season in 1980, the homeowners association received approval from the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors to construct a revetment to protect the coastal homes and replace a walkway it says was available to the public at the time.
Though the commission wrote that the county’s encroachment permit explicitly named the public’s right to use the walkway, access had been effectively negated beginning in 1982 and a series of unfruitful discussions and mediation have failed on numerous occasions in the 40 years since.
Legal proceedings
In late 2018, the county demolished barrier walls that cordoned off the walkway from public access, which prompted a lawsuit from the homeowners association. Ultimately, a Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Timothy Volkmann ruled in favor of the homeowners late last year, securing their right to the beachside walkway.
Annie Vadaugna, a boardmember at the homeowners association, told the Sentinel in an email that Volkmann’s ruling included a “preliminary injunction allowing temporary barriers to be placed where the demolished structures once existed.”
“The Coastal Commission refuses to accept Judge Volkmann’s decision against the County and has most recently attacked the homeowners by claiming that a 1980 seawall Coastal Permit issued to the Rio Del Mar (homeowners association) required public access across the small patios,” wrote Vadaugna. “There is no such condition on the permit and the Commission cannot invent one 43 years later in order to take private land for public use and attempt to extract unconscionable fines and penalties for using the small amount of private space.”
In his ruling last year, Volkmann wrote that despite the county’s claim to hold an interest to the pathway on behalf of the public, “the preponderance of the evidence actually presented at trial made it clear that the County had no desire to maintain this property and took active steps to distance itself from any responsibility for the 37-foot walk, over the span of almost 90 years. At some point, the actual chronology of events that led to this trial must take priority.”
The county has, in turn, voiced an intention to file an appeal and shared a statement with the Sentinel in October pledging it “will continue to fight for the public’s right to access the coast and prevent wealthy landowners and their Southern California lawyers from closing it off for personal use.”
County Supervisor Zach Friend, who represents the Rio Del Mar region, said in a written statement to the Sentinel Friday that “This walkway is an essential public access point and without it, our community, especially those with mobility challenges, have lost a safe way to access our coastline.”
Coastal distinction
The Coastal Commission made clear in its report that its enforcement penalties are unrelated to the litigation between the homeowners and the county. According to the staff report, the commission obtained this authority in 2014, after then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation that gave the commission’s public access enforcement mechanism some extra teeth.
In 2021, the Coastal Commission levied a $4.2 million fine, later upheld in court, against a Malibu homeowner it said resisted multiple requests to remove a gate that blocked public access to a nearby beach.
It has also been involved in high-profile litigation with Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla for years after he restricted passage through his 88-acres of property near Half Moon Bay that leads to the popular surf spot, Martins Beach.
The Dream Inn is at 175 W. Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz and the meeting agenda is available online at coastal.ca.gov.
If you go
What: California Coastal Commission meeting.
When: 9 a.m. Thursday
Where: The Dream Inn, 175 W. Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz. To attend via Zoom, fill out a speaker request form for the meeting at coastal.ca.gov.
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