City of Malibu Says Voluntary Beach Access
Way Requires Coastal Development Permit
• Property Owner’s Action
Spotlights Use Rights Issues
Civic virtue, retribution or
not-so-neighborly internecine warfare?
No one is quite certain about a Carbon
Beach homeowner’s decision to open up a new access
gate for the public to get through a row of mansions and enjoy
a once-exclusive stretch of Malibu’s toniest beach.
But whatever the motive may be, the City of
Malibu says the access route needs a coastal development
permit, and doesn’t have one.
The new footway to the beach is several
hundred yards east of the once-controversial accessway at David
Geffen’s beach house. It improves pedestrian access to
the eastern end of what is popularly known as
“Billionaire’s Beach,” the private crescent
of sand stretching from Malibu Pier east to the rocks at Carbon
Creek.
A spokesperson for the house’s owner,
Peter Kleidman, said the access was opened for the first time
last week “because he wants everyone to enjoy the
beach.” Valeri Michaels said her boss “just sees
this as something to give back to people who are less
fortunate.”
But a few neighbors see something a little
less altruistic. Although none would allow their names to
be published, interviews with several Carbon Beach residents
paint a picture of an absentee owner who opened the
difficult-to-get-to beach to the public as a possible act of
retribution.
“He did this to get even with the guy
he sold another house to,” said one woman. Kleidman, who
owns the home at 21950 Pacific Coast Highway, at one time owned
the house immediately to the east and sold it to another man,
she said.
Several beach residents said Kleidman
suffered seller’s remorse, but the buyer refused to
let him out of the sales contract. Kleidman allegedly opened
the gate to the public as a result, these neighbors said.
Kleidman was at his London residence and
not available to react to the neighbors’
allegations. Earlier, spokesperson Michaels had allowed that
although “there have been some disputes” with
neighbors, she stressed that the accessway was created in
thehopes that “inner-city kids, people from the Valley,
everyone can enjoy this magnificent beach.”
Michaels said Kleidman is a Wall Street
financier who has decided to sell all of his Malibu properties
and live in his houses near New York City and London.
The wooden gate at 21950 is marked across
the highway by a “Beach Access” sign that appears
on close inspection to be an imitation of the official
“brown barefoot” signs posted by the state at
publicly operated easements.
Persons opening the unlocked wooden gate
and walking to the beach find themselves standing next door to
the beachfront mansion of one of California’s wealthiest
powerbrokers, Eli Broad, on an exclusive stretch of sand
populated by a number of equally impressive movers and
shakers.
A check of public records at the City of
Malibu shows that Kleidman purchased building permits
early this year to remodel the garage at the house, and
build a new beach access way. The new route, however, would be
on the eastern edge of the property, and is not shown as any
possible permanent dedication to a public agency.
The current route to the beach, adjoining
Broad’s mansion on the west side of 21950, is separated
from the house’s patio by a temporary-looking chain-link
fence that does not appear on the construction permits.
The path is unlocked Thursdays-Sundays
during daylight hours, and affords access across a wooden patio
between Kleidman’s and Broad’s homes. A trash
can is provided, and the gateway appears to be managed
similarly to other public access routes mandated by the
California Coastal Commission.
“By emulating the Coastal
Commission’s regulations and requirements,
he’s protecting himself against any allegation of
creating a private nuisance,” said John J. Thyne Jr., a
real estate law professor at the Santa Barbara-Ventura Colleges
of Law.
Thyne said adjacent homeowners could only
win a lawsuit if they could prove that the general public is a
nuisance to beachfront landowners—a so-called
“private nuisance” lawsuit. “That is not
something a court is likely to do, particularly when there are
agencies trying to increase access to the beach.
“As long as there is no local, county
or state ordinance which he’s in breach of, and no
covenants or homeowners association rules, I think
he’s absolutely within his rights,” Thyne said.
The city’s planning department
learned of the matter from a reporter this week. “Right
now we would view this as a new development, which would
require a coastal development permit,” said Planning
Manager C.J. Amstrup. Whether such a permit can be granted
cannot be determined yet, he said.
Like all coastal permits, this one would
need to go before the Malibu Planning Commission, and could be
appealed to the City Council and Coastal Commission.
Since the new pathway’s operating
conditions mirror government-approved conditions for
access easements just up the beach, the city would be
hard-pressed to legally deny it, Thyne said.
Other Carbon Beach residents interviewed
last weekend said they were aware of the situation, and
didn’t care much. “The reality is, this is public
beach and it has been denying that reality to think it is
private,” said one beachfront resident, who would only
give his name as Jonathan.
An Altadena man visiting a beachfront
resident said he thought Kleidman’s unilateral action
“was kind of rude. I can understand why people would
want access limited, even though it’s a public
beach,” said Tony Reece.
The new accessway was first reported in the
Native Intelligence blog, and a handful of
people on Saturday said they saw the sign on PCH and stopped to
use the walkway.
