City of Malibu Says Voluntary Beach Access Way Requires Coastal Development Permit

• Property Owner’s Action Spotlights Use Rights Issues

BY HANS LAETZ

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.