UPDATE: Dana Point City Council passed their resolution to continue to have locked gates at Strands Beach.
The Council revised the hours from one hour before sunrise and one hour after sunset.
They based their decision on public safety issues.
Restrictive access to Dana Point’s Strands Beach will be discussed at the Dana Point City Council meeting Tuesday November 3 2015 at 6:00pm.
The Dana Point City Council meets at Dana Point City Plaza located at 33282 Golden Lantern Street.
The Public is encouraged to attend.
The costly lengthly legal battle with the Surfrider Foundation and the California Coastal Commission over the public’s right to
access over Strands Beach is ongoing for the City of Dana Point.
Dana Point has spent five years in litigation and have suffered four Court losses over the Strands Beach access.
Dana Point suffered its most recent loss on September 17 2015 with the California Superior Court.
The Court ruled that the city of Dana Point could not use claims of teenage partying to limit public beach access
through a gated community of multimillion dollar homes.
In a strongly worded decision the Court found that the city’s emergency ordinance was based on “nothing more than speculation, conjecture and fear mongering.”
The Dana Point City Council is now proposing access to Strands Beach from one hour before sunrise and one hour after sunset.
The Council will also recommend that the existing gates be put on automatic timers for the proposed time restrictions.
This is in direct conflict with the California Coastal Commission’s directive to the City of Dana Point on this matter.
The California Coastal Commission responded to the Dana Point City Council upcoming November 3 2015 meeting that would officially put restrictions to Strands Beach access in a letter to the council dated October 30 2015.
The California Coastal Commission states “… We urge the city council to uphold it’s responsibility to protect and uphold public coastal access and deny the gates and proposed hours of operation..”.
The California Coastal Commission October 30 2015 letter to the City of Dana Point reminds the City that this new proposal is not permitted and it obstructs the public access to Strands Beach.
The California Coastal Commission also states that Dana Point’s desire to restrict access to Strands Beach is not consistent with Dana Point’s Local Coastal Program (LCP) and with the Public’s Access and Recreation Policies of Chapter 3 of the California Coastal Act.
The Surfrider South Orange County Chapter is urging the public to attend tonight’s meeting and support full access to Strands Beach.
Surfrider is also supporting the public directly contacting the Dana Point City Council through their public email accounts.
Here is some of the California Coastal Commission Background of this five year legal battle in a Press Release dated September 18 2015
A judge on September 17 ruled that the city of Dana Point could not use claims of teenage partying to limit public beach access through a gated community of multimillion dollar homes.
In a strongly worded decision, the Court found that the city’s emergency ordinance was based on “nothing more than speculation, conjecture and fear mongering.”
The decision is a significant victory for public access and clarifies that municipalities can’t circumvent the Coastal Act under the guise of protecting the public.
“If you have a real, legitimate threat and you need to take emergency action to safeguard the public, you can take steps to do that,” said the agency’s Executive Director Charles Lester. “But you can’t pretend there’s a nuisance just to avoid your Coastal Act obligations.”
Over the years, the California Coastal Commission has occasionally encountered some local governments that have used flimsy excuses to try to limit or shut down beach access instead of taking steps to manage public use.
While legitimate public safety emergencies can include oil spills, public stairways washed out by storms or encroaching fires, some cities have used residents’ complaints about trash, partying and traffic to curb coastal access.
Angela Howe, legal director for the Surfrider Foundation which was also a plaintiff, said they were pleased with “this court victory that upholds the Coastal Commission’s authority to protect public beach access for all people along our 1,100 miles of beautiful California coastline.”
“After five years of fighting this legal battle,” she continued, “and four losses for the city in court, we expect that they can finally drop the litigation and open Strands Beach for full public access.”
The lawsuit stems from the Strand at Headlands, a development of beachfront homes that Dana Point approved in the early 2000s.
The developer, Sanford Edward, was required to provide new public access ways through the development to the popular beach.
The developer had been actively trying to limit access through the community since its approval.
In 2009 Edward built gates and, the city, claiming a flood of police reports adopted an emergency ordinance to limit access through those gates during daylight hours.
Commission staff told the city that the municipality did not have the authority to limit hours and directed local officials to remove the illegal gates.
Instead, Dana Point officials claimed the city was exempt from the Coastal Act because a public nuisance existed.
The city sued the commission and the Surfrider Foundation sued the city.
The lower court initially ruled against the commission, but the court of appeal directed the lower court to reconsider, resulting in Thursday’s victory.
When Surfrider won in the lower courts, the city appealed. That suit is on hold in the appeals court pending Thursday’s decision.
In her decision, San Diego Superior Court Judge Randa Trapp seized on the city’s weak evidence to shut down access.
Trapp quoted a law enforcement representative who told the city officials that if they did not maintain the gates and limited hours then result would be “sex, drugs, rock and roll.”
Trapp called that “sheer speculation.”
“It made for good theater,” she wrote. “It was not, however, rooted in reality.”
South OC Beaches encourages our readers to read some of the California Costal Commission evidence in the Strands Beach Access matter by linking to Documents.
You can read the Dana Point City Council recommendation by accessing the city site here.
Then you can access the Agenda for the November 3 2015 meeting.
Public Hearing Item 11 link is the complete proposal with supporting evidence.
The very last item in the supporting evidence is a letter from the California Coastal Commission dated October 30 2015.
