Carbon Beach Access Way Saga Takes Another Turn

• Newest Gate to Beach May Lack Sponsorship

BY HANS LAETZ

The great Carbon Beach access way controversy just gets weirder and weirder. The gate to the beach at 21950 Pacific Coast Highway is being reported as off limits to the public. But it’s not.

Regular readers might recall news two weeks ago of a new route to exclusive Billionaire’s Beach, a stretch of highly coveted, publicly owned sand near Carbon Canyon that is hard to get to due to a long row of mansions blocking access.

The owner of two houses on the beach, a New York financier named Peter Kleidman, had opened up a portion of one of his properties as an access way for public use.

Some of the location’s neighbors watched in amusement, and said Kleidman’s ostensible act of altruism may have been retaliation against a couple who live next door to the house on PCH. Kleidman and the immediate neighbors reportedly were engaged in a real estate dispute, and some in the area conjecture that Kleidman had opened up the public access way to get back at them.

The City of Malibu, unaware of the new public access way to the beach, said it would require Kleidman to get a conditional use permit for the change in land use. That means going through the planning process, including a hearing before the municipal planning commission. No application paperwork has been filed. If it is, the pathway’s status during this process is unclear.

Since then, it has been confirmed that one of the sister agencies of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, also led by conservancy executive director Joe Edmiston, had worked out a deal with Kleidman to make the access way public, open and close the gate each day of the weekend, and pick up trash at the location.

The conservancy put up one of the traditional brown “barefoot” beach access signs across the street on PCH and slowly let the word out that the public was welcome at 21950.

Once news of the neighborhood feud got out, however, that deal collapsed.

“We found out it was a dispute amongst neighbors, and we don’t want to be in the middle of that,” said Conservancy spokesperson Dash Stolarz.

But the sign remains up, the gate remains unlocked, and persons inside the house said, “Come on in” last Saturday and Sunday.

Bring your own towel.