I thought this asshole lost.

How many fucking times do they have to lose?

But my observation has been that things like fines and lawyers are just another line-item in the household budget for such as they.

They figure that if they bought the beachfront house, they also bought the beach, and thus have exclusive rights to the beach, no matter what the law says. It goes on and on -- down in Los Angeles County there are public coastal access paths that have private guards and gates, and when the house owners are forced to take those down they find other ways to make the paths visually disappear.

It's like the guy who bought a lovely multimillion dollar estate in Montecito during one of our major droughts -- everybody else in Santa Barbara county, rich and poor, was water-restricted, but not this guy: he dug a well that tapped into everybody's aquifer.

The sense of entitlement sometimes takes your breath away.

I know the beach rule in California, but wouldn't his lot survey show that he doesn't own the beach?

I know, I know, the willful arrogance of the stupidly rich.

I don't think he's contesting ownership of the beach, it's all about closing the only road that gets to the beach.

Previous owners allowed access (for a fee) and he's (usually) doing the same thing, but wants to be able to be allowed to just close the road. I'm guessing the county/state doesn't have an official easement that covers the road.

Raze the joint and kick him out.

to build an alternative access road? Seems simpler than ten years of litigation. Cheaper too. Mike Huckabee is trying the same thing on the Florida panhanddle.

...once the very wealthy colonize beachfront property, because they think they own the actual beach and that they deserve a view of it unimpeded by the hoi-polloi having picnics or surfing -- and they can and do install guards and gates on the footpaths leading past (not through) their property. When they are forced to remove the guards and gates they make every effort to make the publicly-owned 100% legal footpaths visually disappear via bushes, trash cans, whatever.

When people buy and build on beachfront property, they are apprised of utility easements and public access up front during the permitting process. Some people just don't think that really applies to them, and this is a battle that has been going on for decades.

And never mind the previous owner 'Allowed' access for decades.

I thought this whole mess was resolved years ago when Pete McCloskey was spearheading the fight.

California law is very clear that the beaches belong to everyone. If he wants a beach so bad, go buy a house in Dubai or Isreal. There are plenty of countries who will let a filthy rich greedy prig buy up an entire beach.

Why force his attempted theft of the commons on California? He should go be a an idiot in a country that doesn't give a crap if their citizens ever get to use/see the beach.

It's a cultural thing... Emirati culture once revolved around the ocean... or, a good part of it anyway.

The coastal beauty belongs to everyone.
The lady's sign is spot on "... Beach is for the 100% no the 1%"

land for access.