Silicon Valley Billionaire Wants You Off His Stretch Of The California Coastline

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

> https://gizmodo.com/silicon-valley-billionaire-wants-you-off-his-stretch-of-1823263769 
> <https://gizmodo.com/silicon-valley-billionaire-wants-you-off-his-stretch-of-1823263769>
>
> Silicon Valley Billionaire Wants You Off His Stretch Of The California Coastline
>
> Melanie Ehrenkranz <//kinja.com/melaniehannah>Today 11:45am 
> <https://gizmodo.com/silicon-valley-billionaire-wants-you-off-his-stretch-of-1823263769>
>
> Photo: Getty
> When you’re having a picnic, the last thing you want is ants, and when you’re a billionaire venture capitalist, it’s 
> equally irksome to have plebeians accessing the beach next to your 89 acres of land. On Thursday, Sun Microsystems 
> co-founder Vinod Khosla filed a 151-page petition 
> <https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/02/22/martins-beach-silicon-valley-billionaire-takes-case-to-u-s-supreme-court/> 
> with the Supreme Court in order to fight to keep the public off the shoreline near his property.
>
> Khosla purchased the property in 2008 for $32.5 million, which stretches along Martins Beach in San Mateo County, 
> according to SFGate 
> <https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Martins-Beach-billionaire-owner-takes-fight-over-12665591.php>. He reportedly 
> padlocked the gate to the shoreline in September 2010, barring access to the beach the previous owners had allowed 
> since the 1920s.
>
> Khosla’s appeal with the Supreme Court argues that he shouldn’t have to get a permit to lock the public access gates, 
> claiming the California Coastal Act is a violation of his constitutional rights. The California Coastal Act was 
> enacted in 1976 to ensure the public had access to the California shoreline.
>
> “These two laws were really instrumental in changing the way Los Angeles, Southern California and the whole state’s 
> coastline looks and the ability of people in California to enjoy those resources,” Molly Selvin, associate dean for 
> interdisciplinary programs at Southwestern Law School, told KCET 
> <https://www.kcet.org/history-society/why-californias-beaches-are-open-to-everyone>, referring to the California 
> Coastal Act and Proposition 20.
>
> In 2014, a San Mateo County judge ruled that Khosla needed to obtain a permit before padlocking the gates, and last 
> August a state appeals court agreed with the ruling. Thursday’s appeal marks Khosla’s continued battle with the 
> courts to shut the public out. He did briefly open the gates in October of last year, but attorney Joseph Cotchett, 
> who worked with nonprofit Surfrider Foundation to sue Khosla in 2013, doesn’t think it was out of goodwill.
>
> “I think this man is so embarrassed by his conduct that somebody must have said to him, ‘open the gate and let the 
> courts figure it out down the line,’” Cotchett told the San Francisco Chronicle 
> <https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Billionaire-relents-kicks-open-his-gate-to-12253788.php?utm_campaign=sfgate&utm_source=article&utm_medium=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfgate.com%2Fbayarea%2Farticle%2FMartins-Beach-billionaire-owner-takes-fight-over-12665591.php>.
>
> It remains to be seen whether the nation’s highest court will take Khosla’s case, which the California Supreme Court 
> declined to hear in October. Mercury News reports 
> <https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/02/22/martins-beach-silicon-valley-billionaire-takes-case-to-u-s-supreme-court/> 
> that the Supreme Court will make a decision on whether it will take his case within a few months.
>
> “It was very much expected that when you have a billionaire who wants his own private beach at the expense of 39 
> million Californians,” State Senator Jerry Hill told Mercury News. “He will do anything to have a private beach and 
> deny other people their right to enjoy the coast in California.”



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