Coastal Clash

OK QED television production. Nothing identifies California more than its 11 hundred mile long coastline. It's part of our identity. Our earliest memories of family. And freedom. But don't be misled by this serene beauty. California's magnificent coast is a battleground. I just want to move us off you're probably. Right. They really should have asked. And telling them to get off. But the public owns. 35 million people live in California most of them within 30 miles of the coast. And as the population increases the competition for this coveted real estate is intensifying. Do we have one set of rules for the rich and powerful to shut down everybody else's throat. Then another set of rules for the common folks to go by.

It is a family heirloom. Private property owners are battling with the public. Private property do not trespass get. And homeowners are up against environmentalists. I can understand their feeling that our goal should just be allowed to fall into the ocean. Folks so much of the coast has become a playground for the wealthy. The California dream has turned into a coastal clash. As millions of people fight for their piece of paradise. This program was made possible by generous contributions from. The Wallace Alexander foundation Tomcat. Melbourne and. Columbia foundation.

The William and Gretchen Campbell. The campaign for the Future program venture by Paul Newman and Nell Newman. The Richard and Rosa Goldman one in honor of Marianne Goldman and KQED its 50th anniversary the members of KQED and the following. Thank you. People go to the beach with. The California montra. Let's go to the beach can be tricky when you consider just who owns the state's 11 hundred mile long coast. About half of the coastline belongs to the public. The other half is privately owned. Get the

picture here. But even on the privately own stretches of coast the beaches themselves belong to every look at least to what people call the mean high tide. It's confusing. And the problem is how to get access to the beach in communities that are fenced and gated to keep the public out. Like Malibu a town that stretches across 27 miles of classic Southern California coast. Welcome to Malibu. My name's Steve boy. I run organization called access for all. And our mission is to improve coastal access in Southern California. One of our biggest problem areas is right here in the city about. Put up a fence. That's a Malibu tradition. Steve Hoy's started access for all four years ago when he got angry at being chased off Malibu beaches. He's a former employee of the Sierra Club.

Now his passion is beach access. I started access for all because nobody else. Because quite frankly nobody wanted to tangle with a lot of rich homeowners. Nobody wanted to mess with the city of Malibu rich and powerful little entity that it is. We had them. Didn't used to say I mean high tide I said private property keep out. Steve Hoyt has a message that the beach is not the private backyard of coastal homeowners the wet sand belongs to the state of California. And Steve wants to make sure people can get to that strip of public beach. This is carbon beach. What we have here are some of the richest and most famous people certainly in the state of California and most obviously in Los Angeles. We want to open up some more access down coast this way because Down goes this way you can't get to the beach for five miles. It's five big ones.

In a classic David and Goliath endeavor. Steve Hoyer is trying to force movie and music mogul David Geffen to open a public walkway at the edge of his carbon Beach estate. This is the access way over Mr. Geffen's property that access for all no homes. Now if you open these gates you have a clear run straight through to the Pacific and that's what we're going to open. David Geffen wouldn't talk to us but it's public record that he promised the California Coastal Commission he would open the nine foot wide easement in 1083 in exchange for getting permits to remodel his home. Steve Hoy's group has accepted legal responsibility for the easement but both Geffen and the city of Malibu sued access for all and the Coastal Commission in 2002 to keep the gate locked citing safety and management issues. The lawsuit is still in court. Steve Hoy's not going away.

Well. I certainly don't think I'm the most hated man in Dallas. I don't care if I am quite frankly. But if. If that's the case so be it. I think the rest of Los Angeles loves me. That's another 15 million people. People in Malibu like to think of their town as a rural village. Albeit a village full of millionaires city officials have to tiptoe around residents who consider privacy their number one priority. Steve Hoy's access fight was sure to make a lot of people nervous. We were taken aback just by the fact that this group. That was slapped together overnight was allowed by the prestigious Coastal Commission to just come in and take over their interest and threaten to open this access way without ever going through in a process of evaluating the environmental impacts of that. Whether that was the best access way to open if there were resources to open a new one today.

The beach battle made international news and inspired a 10 day send up in Gary Trudeau's Doonesbury comic strip but Malibu City officials are a little touchy on the subject. The city is totally committed to not only the existing public access but into increasing new public access. And yet the debate goes on as if where were hostile to it. But there's a lot more Malibu could be doing. According to the Coastal Commission. There are 11 more places where people could walk from the road to the beach they could be open in the town including David Geffen's gate. There is again. John Heit is David Geffen's next door neighbor. His family has owned this house since the 1920s. The access way Steve boy wants to open runs between their two properties. John's worried about what will happen to this beach if the public starts using the town. He thinks people should stick to the eight miles of Malibu beaches operated by the county or state because

they have parking. Lifeguards and bathrooms. I have completely conflicting feelings about it. I mean yes it's nice to open all the beaches. The second the publicans down here. The shower we have to like shut off the water the patio furniture we're going to have to think about OK how do we protect this. Frankly we become. Lifeguards for the public because when the public gets in trouble in the shore break. I mean they have to round save them. It's about privilege. Plain and simple. It's about. Private people. Taking. Public land. And trying to make it de facto with their own. Southern California beaches have a history of exclusivity African-Americans were only allowed on two beaches in the 1920s and 30s in Malibu. There used to be a clause included in home purchase agreements that banned

non-whites from the premises unless they were servants. Today there are other methods to keep beaches exclusive. Like these signs on Malibu's broad beach home to stars like Danny Devito Goldie Hawn and Dustin Hoffman. Homeowners here have not only put up illegal private beach size. They've hired aggressive security guards to patrol the beach and intimidate people into leaving. But last year the guards called the sheriff on the wrong sunbather. Sarwan who's been a member of the California Coastal Commission for eight years. She was sitting on one of the dry sand easements that had been given to the state by homeowners to see if reports of harassment were true. And they promptly sent. By sheriffs on ATV. They proceeded to get me this long lecture about how I couldn't be on private property and. You know all the rest of that. And when they were finished I turned to them and said Now let me tell you what the law is and

produce the documents that show them that in fact about half of Broadbeach has lateral access easements on it and therefore the public has a right to sit on those and that they really shouldn't be harassing the public and telling them to get off. But the public owns the Coastal Commission recently sent letters to Broadbeach home owners demanding that they take down the signs and get rid of the security guards so people would feel free to use this beach. A few more stretches of sand would be welcome in Los Angeles where beaches are the most heavily used in the state. And as time goes by they will become more and more important because as the population increases. You don't have more be each. You just have more public so you need to have access to as much of the beach as you can. But even if you have access to the beach you're faced with another problem figuring out what part of the sand is public and what is private property. In

California something called the mean high tide line which is the average of eighteen point six years of high tides. Separates public from private. But most beach goers have no idea where that line is. You know what I mean. My timeline. No I don't know what I mean I thought it was a joke. Is it the opposite of a friendly high tide line. Not exactly. It's much easier to know where to put your talent Oregon Texas and Hawaii because beaches are public to the first line of vegetation. But in California finding the mean high tide line is even a challenge for the head of the state lands commission. It's his agency surveyors who find the line when it's necessary for building permits. Let's walk down. Here a little bit. And see if you think this private. Means. Really 9 type. That requires calculations such as a survey. You couldn't do it you couldn't I couldn't go out here and show you where it is right now part of the problem is the wave conditions if you're telling me that the state lands a saint commission is saying that you can't

tell where the mean high time line is just from the wet sand that's news to me because the courts have said that means high tide line is an ambulatory line and basically it's where it is wet. People come to the banks to lose. The pressures of daily life for. Their souls to. Watch the waves to. Write poetry in their heads. I take a deep breath then another one and stretch my stride out a little less and walk along. I feel so free and so small in the midst of such an immense horizon. No one in California may be more familiar with the tug of war between public and private land than Linda Hans and her friends. They're part of coast walk. A group dedicated to completing California's coastal trail as it stretches from Oregon to the Mexican border. Today the group is hiking the rugged Sonoma County coast. But last year Linda and nine other people walked the entire length of

California along the coastal trails proposed route logging their experiences along the way. The feeling of walking on the edge of a continent on a rare landscape formed by the collision of water and land. I've never gotten tired of it. There were moments of incredible beauty on their trip. And times of discouragement when coastal access was blocked and they were forced to the highway. We lost about 500 miles of highway 1. And. It was really scary for us we wore our orange vests and we would yell out. Maaa was there were so many cars and. Then we just. Would walk. Close to the white line we called it walking the fog line. We just have to do it day after day because we were just determined that we were going to walk. We wanted to walk the coast. And they did. For 112 days until they reached the Mexican border.

Now they're more determined than ever that the state Coastal Trail which is half finished should be completed. They think it will change people's relationship with the coast. I hear the ocean in one ear and the whole of an Osprey in the other. This is the fascination of the Coastal Trail for me. Every part is something special. A long long if it be. A small town with a pier at the end of Main Street. One of the reasons the coast walkers had access problems is that many beachfront homeowners are making their own rules when it comes to putting up gates fences and private property signs. So why isn't the Coastal Commission doing anything to stop them. The Commission simply doesn't have sufficient funds to have the staff to be able to deal with enforcement. It can't check on violations it relies on the public to tell it about violations.

Even in a budget crisis state senator West says Breaux thinks the Coastal Commission should be given the money to do its job. He heads the Senate Budget Committee. And I think we need to take responsibly in the budget process for saying what are our priorities and if the people of this state feel that protecting the coastline is a very high priority then we have to put our money where our mouth is and fully funding it. In fact there are only 11 people on the commission's enforcement staff whose job it is to stop coastal violations up and down the entire state. Right now there are nearly a thousand pending enforcement cases every time the commission goes to do anything relative to enforcement. It has to prepare all the legal work necessary in case it has to go to court on the issue. And so it's it's a long expensive process the commission is only going to do it in major cases. So most minor of violations don't ever even get dealt with but there's a lot of major enforcement issues that don't get dealt with either.

Really. That's frustrating when you consider the noble intentions that led to the creation of the California Coastal Commission. It was a huge oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara in 1069 that shocked Californians into realizing the coast needed permanent protection. People were also angry that beach access was disappearing as the coastline was being built up mile by mile. Bill Court him led the fight against the exclusive Sea Ranch development in Sonoma County. Castle Cook came along and bought. The Olson ranch which are just 10 miles of our coastline. And the supervisors is saying to you let them develops a ranch with no public access to. Court him and other environmentalists got sea ranches proposed 50 200 homes scaled back to 23 hundred. Out of this activism came a coastal

protection initiative called Proposition 20. Voters approved it in 1972. That think that really a group of citizens could. Bring that change in land use and California would very exhilarating. In a way embarrass local planning groups to. Give you a better job. Yes. I have the Coastal Commission became permanent in 1976. Its job is to protect and conserve both the coast and coastal access. But the commission is a lightning rod for controversy. I think the Coastal Commission is an agency that has lost its bearings. It is consumed by self righteousness which leads to tremendous arrogance and mistreatment of people along the California coast. The commission has always had its enemies both governors Deukmejian and Wilson ran on platforms to abolish it. Right now there's a case pending before the state Supreme

Court to declare it unconstitutional. And let's be honest who sits on the Coastal Commission is a function of politics because commissioners are appointed politically and sometimes you have commissioners who are committed to upholding the law and protecting the coast. And sometimes you have commissioners who aren't. The people who are the loudest critics of the Coastal Commission are usually trying to build on the coast the Coastal Commission really conducts itself as a bunch of thugs like Keith from whose company develops coastal property up and down the state. If you've ever seen any of the documents that the Coastal Commission files in a in a court room the first three pages are all how great the Coastal Commission is how noble they are and why they're doing God's work and then they go and proceed to do all the sneaky dirty things that they do in the name of this holy mission. I think it's a corrupt organization. If we weren't generating conflict and controversy we wouldn't be doing our job

because people will push to exploit coastal resources for their own benefit without thinking about the broader public interest and it risk requires. Unfortunately it requires the strength and restraint and a regulatory presence the Coastal Commission has processed more than 100000 permits in the past twenty eight years. But even though it's approved 95 percent of them many developers and property owners say the commission makes too many demands before issuing a building permit. James Burling is a Sacramento attorney who specializes in helping people take on the Coastal Commission. He's with the Pacific Legal Foundation. The difficulty is that some landowners are beyond the pale. We get calls all the time from landowners saying CAN THEY DO THIS TO US. And my answer has to be to them well you can give in to them give them what they want. Dedicate 65 70 percent of your property. Give this that or the other thing away

shrink the size of your house reduce your dreams genuflect at them and maybe you can get something built or spend four five six years in court. The commission doesn't just allow development without conditions and I think. There's a confusion that says that just imposing those conditions are onerous but that's what the commission is mandated to do and that's what it needs to do. And frankly it needs to do that in the long term economic interest of the state. The question now is how Governor Schwarzenegger's administration will treat the Coastal Commission in my administration. The notion that you have to choose jobs. Well the governor unveiled a new coastal plan in October that would create a cabinet level ocean Protection Council. But he didn't comment on the Coastal Commission. Many lawmakers doubt the governor will try to undermine it. I think it would be very politically foolish for him to to go that direction. It

would be contradictory to the general image that he has tried to project as a guy who in general is concerned about California's business climate but on the other hand recognizes that our quality of life and our unique environmental assets are not part of being economically successful in California the coastline is part of who we are. Development was an issue on the California coast at the turn of the last century Southern California beach towns were so remote that a New England encyclopedia company gave away deeds to lots in Huntington Beach as free gifts. Those deeds gather dust until 1920 when oil was discovered in the town. The land rush began bringing people railroads and the Pacific Coast Highway. Today the oil rigs are God. But more people than ever are drawn to southern California by the climate and ocean. The coast has become wall to wall bedroom communities. Communities like Salon and Beach just north of San Diego

it's now a bustling upper middle class town home to people like Gail Steele who left Minnesota for the lure of the Pacific. We came for the water. And. We just loved Southern California. We thank God for the fact that we live here. We are living America with Gayle's miracle is eroding away. She lives in the service on condominiums in the building closest to the edge of the bluff. In the past two years Gayle has lost almost a quarter of her back yard. The sidewalk next to her home has already fallen onto the beach below. The pool is closed because it too is in danger of collapsing. Gil believes the seawall is the only thing that will protect her home. We were sure and we wanted to believe and that this beach was different this block is different that this was more stable.

But why would the bluff in front of Gail Steele's condo be any different from these bluffs just up the beach erosion is such a problem in Salon a beach that half of its coastline has some type of armory. This rock fell off the bluff. This is what all of these condos are built on for the people that live on the bluff and bought those condominiums they should have been on notice when those economies were constructed in 1972. Geologist oceanographers from Scripps warn them that we're going to be in this situation. They've had 30 years to think about it. It just crumbles like sand. The building of sea walls has sparked one of the most divisive debates on the California coast today. In one corner are those who say they need sea walls to protect their homes. On the other side are people who believe sea walls whether they're concrete. Rock sandbags or sprayed on gun night. Are actually making beaches

disappear. As you fly down the California coast. The effects of sea walls seem apparent. There are sandy wider beaches where the ocean is allowed to act naturally on the shore but in many places where the back of the beach is fixed with a sea wall the beach narrows dramatically. Some coastal scientists think this happens because shore erosion is stopped and as water level rises the beach is actually flooded. Well the public certainly should be outraged because ninety nine point nine percent of the public is not in the position of being able to live right on the edge of the ocean. And so what we're doing is ruining our sandy beaches for the benefit of 1 percent of our population about one quarter of the coastline between the Golden Gate Bridge and the Mexican border is now armored. And although some states are restricting seawalls for homeowners in California the

pace of seawall construction is actually increasing. Right now. About a mile of coast is walled every year. Each homeowner goes before the local city council and the California Coastal Commission with tears in their eyes talks about how their dream home is falling into the ocean and will that they will their home will be destroyed if they're not permitted to build these walls. And in each and every case the Coastal Commission has sympathy on these homeowners and and approves these walls. I can understand not wanting to see why I can't understand their feeling that. Our homes should just be allowed. To fall into the ocean. That's exactly what happened to Jane to Lena's home during the fierce El Nino storms of 1998.

Jane lives in Pacifica just south of San Francisco 30 feet of the bluff in her backyard crumbled that winter. Her rock seawall disappeared in the storms and the whole. Thing. Like a monopoly just. Lifted off its foundation. They warned us about the only way. They said it was coming. I had never been in one I had no idea what to expect. There was an incredible amount of rain. The backyard had fallen. The fence was gone. The undercoating. Was starting to happen. And then the. General Joy who is an expert on the California coast was checking out the house next door. And I hear this pounding on my door and I went in and go look out your bedroom window. My bedroom window was like right. Here. And I would step. Out and walk across a nice put. Down a lovely embankment. All of a sudden I stepped out my glass door and. Stepped

into space. I haven't been out of. The house. And I think I know why. This is what. I think you see. And I tell. You you're. Right that you're. Right. I suspect. But. I think. I mean. Look what I was up against. I mean I was up against. One of the greatest forces of nature. Looking back. Now you kind of go. Oh. That's probably the biggest problem Pacifica houses people just desire to live right on the edge of the class and right on the edge of the beach and setbacks should be in a planned community should be substantial. Just down the road from Jane to Lenny's fall in Bluff Pacifica is trying a radical new

approach to getting those setbacks. At Linda Mar State Beach. We're actually taking a beach back what the city is trying to do is restore the beast to its natural functioning system. We're in a process of taking hard structures and pulling them off the beach. The bitch is going to be allowed to sort of shape itself by a couple of large winter storms and start looking at a farm that was similar to it was prior to 900. This new approach to coastal management called retreat and restore will make the beach more beautiful of course but it will also allow Pacifica to stop spending money rescuing beach homes seawalls fath rooms and sidewalks from the ravages of the Pacific. It's expensive. This project cost 5 million dollars. It's hard to retreat because the real estate so is so valuable. But if you since I've been here it's been a constant battle with the ocean we have a pretty aggressive. Pacific Coast stand no matter what you do you just can't seem to beat it.

What a time it was. Jane to Leni couldn't beat it so she moved her life inland about two miles from her old home. I like when the beach this far away. I wish that they'd do a better job protecting the coast California protecting if I can get along. Is what I. Do have a home on it. I can see how you try almost anything. To save this experience for yourself. You're in your family. But. You don't have grandchildren because they're fuckin and barefoot. And that's. That's kind of. The bottom line of it is that eventually. You're gonna live. My grandchildren are the oldest one of five so we're just looking forward to the next 10 15 years of them enjoying this and we just kind of refuse to believe that it could be lost if it were investment property to one

thing but it's not of their own. In this event we would do whatever it takes. Ever. Early this year Gail Steele's prayers were answered. The surf song condominiums received an emergency permit from the Coastal Commission to build a one hundred twenty foot sea wall below their property. After 2000 tons of bluff crashed down on the beach below. Had we not gotten land at that permit not come through I don't know what we would have done for me. We don't put waves. Above the needs of people. And there are many people who have been displaced. Because. They were unable to have a family. And I think that's a tragedy. You might be surprised to find out why the cliff in front of Gail Steele's condo is eroding so fast. One of the reasons is because there's not enough sand on the beach to absorb the wave energy. And the culprit here is hundreds of miles away at a

dam. Most beach sand comes from rivers and streams that flow to the ocean. But 20th century development and the building of dams have cut off sand at its source. Every time we put a dam on a river. It does two things. It stops the flow sediment and it slows down our or decrease the size of the big floods that carry the sediment so we have built. 500 dams 500 large dams in California in this century and every one of those a trapping sediment destined for the beach damming Rivers is probably the single biggest factor that's affected the beaches of California. Case in point is Matilda had dam in Ventura County. It's estimated that two thirds of the sediment from a tributary of the Ventura river has been trapped by the dam for the past 50 years. The Army Corps of Engineers is planning to take down the dam both to protect steelhead trout and to release sand to beaches. Meanwhile some coastal towns are trying another method to get sand on their beaches.

They're buying So a lot of beach officials hope sand replenishment will restore the town's beaches to their natural state and keep waves from eroding the bluff so rapidly. After all the beach is the town's main attraction. If the city has lot of beach lost its beach would definitely be a drain on the local economy in terms of folks visiting Salada beach to to use the beach just people wanting the stance a lot of it's to do just something simple a simple take a stroll on the beach. Sand replenishment is standard practice on the East Coast. And some scientists think it could work here. That's a good thing to do is to nourish the beaches of your raft or beaches. Then bring sand However you can get it and place it on a beach. Is is a good system. And I think that. It's gotten partially a bad name because a beach is a mobile moving river of sand.

Other coastal scientists think beach replenishment is a waste of taxpayers money. I think. Personally the issue of beach nourishment you got to ask some really serious questions because. It's not a one time process you're talking about millions of dollars every year. It's gone for the most part. It's logical to want wider beaches but is that something the whole state of California should pay for. Solving the problems created by California's eroding coastline will not be easy because the economic stakes are so high. Coastal towns want wider beaches. Homeowners want seawalls and the compromises involved will impact our coast forever. The next big drama on the California coast is about land sold to the highest bidder. Nowhere is the issue of coastal development more heated than it is here on the seventy six mile Gavino Idda coast. The last large rural coastal strip in Southern California. It starts

just north of Santa Barbara where you'll find the Nuba car a hotel. Built above a beach that locals used to call their own. This is private property. DEBRA NOWLAND we would need to ask. Respect that. And if you like we certainly will. We began to feel the friction on this coastline when we tried to do an interview at the edge of the beach only to be stopped by hotel security. Doesn't that that right of way is my title of the beat. Down the beach. In fact you. Know. I mean. People shower here people picnic here. Why is it that when I bring a camera I have an interview. I don't understand why you continue to do this kind of. Developments like the car I have put an end to the days when this beach felt like part of the community attitude no separation. Now access is restricted to an unmarked path through hotel grounds and security guards are never far away for you to shut us down right. Right now we want to get in my house but we want to find out is this what you said I said I just want to move us off your

problem. People here are worried that this is what could happen to the entire GAVI yota coast. Driving north you reach the gated community of Hollister ranch where the welcome mat wasn't out either. I wonder if we could get down to the base was rather answer. Can you park the car and then walk in. So there's no beach access set off the side. OK homeowners here at Hollister ranch have been very effective in keeping the public off their eight and a half miles of beach front even though they're right next to GAVI State Beach. No public roads run through the ranch. Public access is by boat only if you have the nerve. These kinds of gated communities and resorts at water's edge are being built up and down the state and these property owners have political clout. Those homeowners who live along the beach combined with what I would

call the private property rights folks are very powerful in terms of not only the money that they have. They are a very powerful lobbying interests and I don't think the state by and large wants to tackle that. People have a right to build on their property whether it's in Mendocino County or Los Angeles County or in yo County a home that makes sense for the area that power to develop coastal property and cut off beach access is exactly what scaring people in the GAVI yota coast as sprawling homes sprout up along the once open coastline. These rolling hills have traditionally been home to family cattle and ABA Katoh ranches like La Paloma which has been known by the Voebel family since 1866. But Eric Voebel and his mother wonder how long this stretch of coast will stay out of developers

hands. But it is comfortable to see that urbanisation marching. You know from hundreds of miles to the south. And it's pointed right in our direction. Kerry Mormon has been selling real estate on the Gavia coast for 25 years. He says this area hasn't changed much in that time. But when you see how much property is for sale here now it's easy to understand why some people are worried. This is a hundred ten acre Winchester Canyon Ranch. We call this the gateway to the GAVI on a coast. This property is on the market for a five million two hundred fifty thousand dollars. And we are in escrow right now. We're at Santa Barbara ranch which is also known as Naples. There's about 100 20 acres of prime oceanfront. The price range on these oceanfront lots range from 6 million to 9 million. There are.

Thousands of acres for sale on the coast prime coastal properties right now. So the pressures in the future are going to be even more tremendous. And what one landowner will do with their property versus another is anybody's guess. When you say that the ownership of private property carries with it responsibilities that does not mean that the public has a right to use people's property until private owners what they can and cannot do with the land speculator. The large scale urban developer. Are remain major threats. To the gap. And they have the power. You know they're the ones who put money behind. Elections of border supervisors. Conservationists are not the table. Development and go Leda at the south end of the GAVI coast already butts up against the urban rural zoning line. The question is how long will that line hold.

A lot of people in Santa Barbara don't want to see development here because we all agree is one of them. It's a beautiful stretch of coastline. But I also say that zoning and local politics dictate very limited growth and development here already. But rancher Eric Voebel is not buying that he thinks the whims of local politicians could easily change this landscape. They could decide well we're not going to change the zoning but we now believe it's in the public interest to allow three or four or five houses per parcel so to the extent. That people are concerned that the board of supervisors has that ability to change the zoning. It's correct it can happen any time. It happened in Northern California in the town of Pacifica. No one thought these acres of farmland would ever disappear. But here's what Pacifica looks like today. After population pressure changed the town from a sleepy farming and fishing village. To a bustling San Francisco suburb. Kenny Keating

has witnessed the changes from her home on his Pacifica boat. Being so close to San Francisco. Just. The word got out and developers started coming in and. It was kind of cool save ourselves a little bit of the old things will still see his old home. The new more affluent home buyers are bringing their own lifestyle to Pacifica. Which means more shopping centers and bigger houses. It's sad for us to watch so many of the little cottage holes get torn down and. Rebuilt old. Houses on property around the property. Eric Voebel doesn't ever want to see his family ranch dotted with multimillion dollar homes. So last year the Voebel sold the development rights of La Paloma to the Santa Barbara county land trust. They signed an agricultural conservation easement which means they can stay on the ranch or even sell the ranch. But prohibits development forever.

It was the right thing for us to do and we were happy to do it. But it's not a solution that I think any landowner could reach. Very good without quite a bit of family time. There was another option to preserve the gap to coast by turning it into a national seashore like point raise in northern California. The park service called GAVI OTA nationally significant. But the Department of Interior rejected the national sea shore status because of strong opposition from local landowners like rancher Eric VOEBEL. He was afraid this coast would be over used by tourists. It would really be a shame to see this cross look like many of the other coasts in Southern California for example down in Ventura where the motor homes are parked. You know front to back. Just motorhome after motorhome. The National Seashore plan would have meant permanent protection for this coast. It was a crushing blow when it was rejected because now the future of the GAVI 0 to coast will

be a parcel by parcel struggle between preservation and development. Southern California has been the center of most of the battles over the California coast but even on the north coast development and beach access are becoming issues people are fighting over. What happened here in the future will have an impact on the city of Fort Bragg. Fort Bragg in Mendocino County used to be a lumber town. We know how important it is now after 100 years the Georgia-Pacific mill is closed. The three and a half miles of coastline where the mill once stood are for sale. A prime development site. Lowy Rosencrantz who runs a local citizens group wants whoever buys the land to take the fences down and open up the coast to the people of Fort Bragg. We understand that there's a search for people to make their bucks.

You know people are not altruistic. But. This land grab its extraordinary coastline. It should be available to families with children. By no means began the minute the development may not be a four letter word for this coastal site. Fort Bragg is courting buyers who can bring jobs to a town that has lost its lumber belt and much of its fishing industry town is looking for a new beginning and in the way Fort Bragg is just in terms of 21st century catching its breath as to what the possibilities are for this credible opportunity that is the Georgia Pacific Mail center.

But the land deal that really has people talking is this one. On the central coast at Hearst ranch home of the Hearst Castle. This piece of property is more than twice the size of San Francisco. It's at the center of one of the largest and most controversial conservation deals in the nation financed by the people of California. It is a family heirloom and it is something that all of us when we drive through those gates were absolutely home. And every time I drive through I sound back. As a grandchild. Steve Hurst is the great grandson of William Randolph Hearst. And the point man for the Hearst Corporation on their new land deal. Ever since Steve was a boy his family has been trying to develop her stretch. Our people have been fighting. Do we have one set of rules for the rich and powerful. We shut down everybody else's throat another set of

rules for the common folks to go by. I think that was the latest development plan was in 1998 when the hearses tried to get the OK to build 650 hotel rooms and a golf course on the ranch. A hundred. People packed this Coastal Commission meeting in San Luis Obispo to oppose it. I think they didn't say it right to the precious plants that we hang out. It's easy to say that we want jobs here. But there's a point in time where we have to say now. It's clear it's a very special place. I trust in you. After an 11 hour marathon meeting Secretary call the roll on the main motion the commission voted against the development. The motion carried that meeting made Steve Hirst rethink the future of the ranch. And I thought to myself anything that we've been doing trying to do for so long that only every time we move into the public eye whether it gets this level of opposition there must be another way to try to find that find that

balance. So the hearse went back to the drawing board and started negotiating with state agencies for a new plan. There will still be development 100 room hotel and 27 homes are planned but the Hearst's will turn over 13 miles of coastline to the state of California. The problem is they're keeping five miles of the best sandy beaches for themselves which means once again the public will only be allowed in the wet sand. Most coastal advocates are against the idea of privatized beaches. When we don't have to do it anymore why should we do it. Why should we give any more away. So right Steve Hurst says those 13 miles were the best he could do. There are some things that I could convince my family and my board to do. And there are some things I couldn't. Many people are also angry that the biggest part of the ranch will be off limits to the public. These 80000 acres on the east side of Highway 1 won't have any major development

but they will be kept private. This 95 million dollar land deal is mostly financed by conservation bonds voters approved in 2002. For that amount of money. Sierra Club's Mark Massara thinks Governor Schwarzenegger should have played hardball with Hearst. Our question to the governor of California and his cabinet officials is why haven't they negotiated with the Kurds. If the public is being asked to spend nearly a hundred million dollars on this deal why are we being forced to accept terms that are so overly friendly to the Hearst Corporation. We asked the governor's office for response but his staff had no comment. And now the Hearst deal is nearly finalized. Steve Hearst's new job is extending an olive branch to the environmentalists who opposed him. But I think that they say if they just stand back a little bit and look at the overall transaction and what it does for the state of California what it does for the people driving down the coast and what it does for the castle in terms of preserving you know

that that view should forever. I think it's overall it's a great deal and I hope they are. I hope they're ultimately satisfied. Is there a way out of the bitter fights on the California coast between developer and conservationist between property owners and the public. People all get to walk out here. Adri Rus thinks one solution is to get out the checkbook buy the land and preserve it. It's so energizing. You can hardly. Get hardly fandom. She figures that just like a developer has the right to build a home on a coastal property. She has the right not to. And she's one land owner who encourages access. And will be a platform out there. So you can feel like you're on your own like how can. You look out to the coast and you can see property post is protected.

Audrey is president of the peninsula open space trust also known as post based in San Mateo County the area north coast has protected more than 50000 acres in the past 25 years making it one of the most successful land trusts in the country so it's protected. By much of the land that we own. Through donations. We're successful because we really mean business and we bring that message to our supporters. A trip down the San Mateo coast shows the beauty of the landscape preserved by post at the Johnston ranch in Half Moon Bay post spent six million dollars for an 800 acre agricultural parcel at the edge of city limits. They could have been developed. People tend to think that but nothing will happen out here that the Coastal Commission will stop it. Our biggest concern here. Is not the massive housing development. It's really the very large

individual private records. And once that one houses there. Then it's pretty easy to. Accept the second house from the third house. And pretty so on. It's all gone. And so from our standpoint. That one house. This isn't worth it. There's a land trust in every coastal county and California. Some have preserved just a few thousand acres others like post have truly changed the landscape. It's your focused. It's your future. It's the future of your children your grandchildren. I think this is life. It's economic life its aesthetic life. It's spiritual. We've always thought of the California coast as an endless resource but now the coast is at a turning point because population and development pressures are changing

it forever. It's a place that should still belong to the public it needs to be there it needs to be a place where you can go to revive our souls from all of the pressures that we feel elsewhere to allow me to have a place in the world. That isn't dominated by. Human beings. The coast is a magnet for conflict as people war over who will get the biggest piece of this magnificent landscape. These houses do not belong here. But since they're here we have to learn to live with them. And they have to learn to live with us. You can see. It going. Just. Going to. Just it's down to public property rights versus private property rights. Mile after mile of development has already swallowed up the coast in southern California. Now the battle over who controls the coast is moving north. It's up to us to decide whose vision of the California

coast will take us into the future. The stakes are enormous. To find out more about coastal clash learn about how beaches work listen to original music composed for the program by Foo Fighter Chris you have lead and discover resources about beaches near you. Surf the w w w dot org slash coastal clash. OK Kuwaiti television production of.

This program was made possible by generous contributions from. The Wallace Alexander bodie foundation. Tom Gannon. Belden enjoying lane. The lumpia foundation. The William and Gretchen gamble the campaign for the Future program venture of. Paul Newman and Mel Newman. The Richard and Rhoda Goldman one. Of the members of the QED and the following. Thank you. Nothing identifies California more than its 11 hundred mile long coastline.

But don't be misled by this serene beauty. California's magnificent coast is a battleground. Just want to move us off your private property owners are battling with the public and homeowners are up against environmentalist. A California dream has turned into. Coastal flash.