Lawyers for venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and the state asked for more time to negotiate an end to dispute over public access to Peninsula beach
The lawyers representing venture capital ist Vinod Khosla and a pair of state agencies have decided they’d like some more time to try to work out a settlement in their long-running legal dispute over public access to Martins Beach on the Peninsula coast.
San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Nina Shapirshteyn, who is overseeing the case, held a video meeting last Wednesday with lawyers for both sides, according to court records. As part of the meeting, Shapirshteyn agreed to delay a case-management conference — a kind of update on the status of the case to see whether it’s on track for a trial or whether a settlement is possible — until Oct. 22. The move came in response to filings separately made late last month and early this month, respectively, by attorneys for the state agencies and for Khosla. In those filings, the attorneys from both sides asked Shapirshteyn to continue to stay proceedings until October and to put off a case-management conference until then. Using identical language in their filings, the two sides asked the judge to schedule the conference then “to allow the parties to further update the court on the status of negotiations and address the status of the stay.” Shapirshteyn stayed the case in April — on the day the trial had been set to start — to allow the two sides to enter settlement negotiations. At the time, the judge scheduled a hearing for last week to check on the status of the negotiations. Shapirshteyn ended up canceling the formal hearing after the conference call with the attorneys, according to the court records. Joshua Smith, a spokesperson for the California Coastal Commission — one of the two state agencies involved in the case — confirmed the postponement. “Settlement negotiations are ongoing,” Smith said, but he said he didn’t know the substance of those talks or what an agreement might look like.California Coastal Commission attorneys involved in the case were not available for comment, Smith said. Sheri Pemberton, a spokesperson for the California State Land Commission — the other state agency involved — declined to comment, citing “pending litigation.” Ex // Top Stories Amateur pizza nerds go all out in North Beach’s annual contest Third annual Pizza, Bagel and Beer Festival featured slate of returning competitors, reigning champion as judge Tiled Steps’ anniversary a reminder of how ‘community came together’ The 16th Avenue Tiled Steps opened 20 years ago Aug. 27 following two years of community organizers State bill requiring testing of AI decision systems draws fire Business, industry groups have lined up against legislation requiring tests for bias, notices of use Shernaz Daver, a spokesperson for Khosla Ventures, Khosla’s venture-capital firm, likewise declined to comment. Lathrop GPM attorneys Jeffrey Essner and Kathleen Fisher Enyeart, who represent Khosla in the case, did not respond to an email seeking comment. The center of the yearslong battle over Martins Beach is the conflict between private-property rights and access to public spaces. Under California law, beaches are public property, a legal notion that dates back to the Roman Empire by way of English common law. But there can be — and have been — frequent legal tussles when access to state beaches is controlled by private landowners or runs through private property. The Coastal Commission and the State Land Commission sued Khosla in 2020, but the dispute over public access to Martins Beach — a cove-shaped coastal area located about 7 miles south of Half Moon Bay on Highway 1 — dates back to more than 10 years earlier. In 2008, Khosla paid $32.5 million to buy a pair of beachfront properties there that totaled 89 acres. His purchase included Martins Beach Road — the only overland route to the beach, which is bordered on its north and south sides by tall cliffs that go down to the water. Two years later, Khosla closed off public access, locking the gate leading to the road, posting guards there and putting up “no trespassing” signs. The move sparked a series of legal battles. In 2018, he lost one of those to the Surfrider Foundation, when the U.S. Supreme Court declined his appeal of a California court decision that said he needed to obtain a permit from the Coastal Commission before he closed off access to the beach. The following year, though, he won a court victory against a group calling itself Friends of Martin’s Beach. The California Court of Appeals ruled that even though previous owners of Khosla’s property had provided public access to the beach via the road, that practice didn’t turn the road into a public right of way. Following that decision, the two state agencies stepped in, filing their own lawsuit to try to ensure public access. In filing the case, the agencies cited newly discovered evidence that the public has had access to Martins Beach since the 1920s, which wasn’t presented in the Friends of Martin’s Beach case. Since losing the Surfrider case, Khosla has reportedly allowed public access to the beach on an intermittent basis. He has said previously he would sell permanent access to the beach for $30 million — nearly as much as he paid for the properties. However, in a bill passed in 2017, the state Legislature only set aside $1 million for such a purchase. If you have a tip about tech, startups or the venture industry, contact Troy Wolverton at twolverton@sfexaminer.com or via text or Signal at 415.515.5594.
Martins Beach California Coastal Commission Public Access Silicon Valley Court Case State Lands Commission Venture Capital
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