Yes, actually, there is such a thing as a truly private beach in California, and this is one of them -as you’ll see if you read the prior court decisions in this case.
The current re-opening is entirely about his failure to apply for a Coastal Development Permit (CDP) before closing the gate. He’s entitled to close the gate, but not without a CDP.
He could still apply for a CDP.
The Coastal Commission might issue the permit - but even if they refuse, he could sue over the refusal - and given the previous court decisions, there’s a pretty good chance he’d win.
Heh. (-:
One commonly misunderstood point, though - it’s not actually the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that controls - it’s the federal patent and quitclaim, issued by the Public Land Commission of 1851 that controls.
By issuing that patent and quitclaim, the Commission was honoring the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. But the recent court decisions about the private nature of the property are based on the US title issued by the Land Commission, not the treaty.
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I thought we had already established that it was paid parking, and free access?
Not sure what you’re talking about there.
This land was deeded prior to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, before the conclusion of the Mexican American War. That treaty was supposed to protect land deeded prior to the U.S. gaining the Southwest territories, but the Senate ditched Article 10 in the treaty, thus forcing prior rancho landowners to prove ownership. The way they did that was by creating a specialized short-term court to hear evidence on land rights claims and work out what borders would be accepted by the U.S. government. (Lots of them lost land.) Basically, all the Supreme Court did was uphold the existing land grant in accordance with the treaty - but only after the borders had been proven.
That’s why this land grant predates California.
The original owner of the property was Jose Maria Alviso, who received a provisional land grant from the Mexican government in the late 1830s. He later transferred the property to his brother, Jose Antonio Alviso, whose rights to the property were upheld under the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which settled the Mexican-American War. The U.S. government challenged Alviso’s land patent, but the Supreme Court confirmed Alviso’s ownership in 1859.
The most recent decision backing the private nature of the land (in May) directly referenced the fact that it was pre-Californian. That’s what that judge based his decision on.
Either way, once she got that star tattoo, it was time to go…
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