For thirty million dollars…
Do you remember last year when it was revealed
that the venture capitalist billionaire Vinod Khosla had closed
access to Martin’s Beach, near San Francisco?
Five years before, Kholsla had thrown $37-and-a-half million at
a 53-acre hunk of land that included what had been the only public
access to the beach, a lil private road.
For a few years, nothing changed and then, last year, anyone who
wanted to use the private road to get to the beach was
gifted the spectacle of private guards blocking their way.
Justin Housman wrote about it eloquently in Surfer
magazine last year:
“You may be thinking to yourself, well, what’s the big deal?
Khosla owns the property; it’s his right to keep the kids off his
lawn. Well, the big deal is that for decades the previous owners of
Martin’s Beach had allowed the public to cross the now-closed gate
and use a private road to get down to the sand. And the California
Constitution declares that all beaches up to the mean high tide
line—any beach not owned by the military, anyway—are public
property. Normally the law allows property owners to keep the
landless hordes from sliming their way across privately held land
on their way to a beach. But since the public had used Martin’s
Beach Road for decades before Khosla bought the land and shut down
the party, a bit of California law called a prescriptive easement
kicked in. That means that if the public has traditionally used a
bit of private property (in this case, the road), the state has the
authority to claim that private land as public. This is why Khosla
will lose his fight. People have always had access to Martin’s
Beach; Khosla would have, or should have, known that when he bought
the land; therefore, he can’t just act all biliionaire-y and cut
off long-used access. Case (eventually, after thousands of dollars
in legal fees) closed.”
Yesterday, it was revealed in the New York Times
that the billionaire will reopen the road… if anyone wants to cough
up thirty mill. How’s that for a deal? That’s almost seven mill
less than what he paid for the joint eight years ago. A bargain,
maybe. Wait.
Y’don’t get the 53-acres, no, no, no.
Thirty million will restore public access to the
beach.
What a zany proposition!
Shall we examine the NY Times’ report?
“Now, for the first time, lawyers for Mr. Khosla have proposed
in negotiations with the state to restore public access for almost
the amount that Mr. Khosla paid for the land.
“But the commission’s executive officer, Jennifer Lucchesi, said
in a telephone interview, “We do not agree with that value, and we
believe the value is significantly less than that.” Ms. Lucchesi
added, “We have not seen any backup documentation to support the
$30 million value.”
“The commission planned to offer its own assessment, she
said.
“The two sides are actually trying to agree on the value of a
right of public use of Martins Beach Road, which leads from the
highway to the beach, and access along the shoreline itself, Ms.
Lucchesi said.
“The talks were initiated under legislation that took effect in
January 2015, she said. If the two sides cannot agree, the
commission could resort to eminent domain, which allows the state
to expropriate private property for public use.
“Mr. Khosla’s lawyer, Dori L. Yob, could not be reached for
comment by telephone or email. But in her letter to the commission,
dated Feb. 3, she said that Mr. Khosla’s limited liability
companies, the legal entity that owns the property, closed the
beach because demand was low, asserting that more than 10 cars
showed up to use it only about 15 days a year.
“Ms. Yob said that while the current real estate market value of
the land was $30 million, the Martins Beach owners previously
offered less expensive solutions to meet the “limited demand” for
access as a way to avoid lengthy litigation and further
expenses.
“The cost to acquire the property is significant and should be
weighed against the benefits,” she wrote. “There is no vital link
to navigable waters at issue. There is not a significant demand for
access to the property.”
What do you think of this scenario?
Is Mr Khosla a very smart biz-man whose expert nose can sniff
out a lucrative opportunity, however it presents itself, or is
he the personification of everything wrong within the capitalist
system?
That everything, and not just the paper castles of stocks but
even the right for ordinary citizens to access a beach, has a
price?