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By
Kenneth R. Weiss
Los Angeles Times
September 2, 2007
El Sol County Beach doesn't show up on maps of Malibu. Its
bluff-top access way remains locked away behind a rusted
chain-link and barbed-wire fence plastered with no-trespassing
signs. The sandy beach below is effectively walled off by
private property and rocky points of land at either end.
As a result, a public strip of beach serves mostly as a
private enclave for adjacent property owners, including
Michael Eisner, former chief executive of Walt Disney Co., and
Gregory J. Bonann, co-creator of the "Baywatch"
television series.
This weekend marks the passing of another summer in which Los
Angeles County officials failed to open a prime beach
purchased 30 years ago with taxpayer dollars on the promise
that it would be used "for public recreation in
perpetuity."
State officials have nudged the county over the years to
ignore objections of the neighbors, offering hundreds of
thousands of dollars to build a needed public stairway to the
beach below. The latest state grant of $700,000, intended in
part to open El Sol Beach, was instead allocated by the county
solely to improving access to Dan Blocker Beach down the
coast.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said
neighborhood opposition didn't figure into the county's
decision not to open the beach. "It's an issue of
money," he said. The state money, he said, was better
spent on a parking lot and improved access to Dan Blocker
Beach than on building an expensive stairway down El Sol's
steep bluff face.
Yaroslavsky said he is a strong proponent of public access to
beaches and has repeatedly stood up to El Sol's neighbors who
would like to purchase the property "to foreclose the
possibility that it become publicly accessible." In
addition to rejecting several other offers for the land, he
said, "we've told Eisner's people -- I've told him
personally -- that we are not going to sell it."
But will El Sol ever be opened? "Ultimately,"
Yaroslavsky said. "The only question is when are we going
to do it."
The saga of El Sol began in 1974, when the county applied for
state park bond money to purchase the land for a public beach
park, according to county records.
"When improved it will provide an excellent location for
swimming, sunbathing, surf fishing, surfing, scuba and skin
diving and other water-related activities," the
application said.
Two years later, the county condemned 2.5 acres of private
property, paying the owner $350,000 from state park bonds that
were "conditioned on the county's agreement to use the
property for public recreation in perpetuity," a memo
states.
In 1980, the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and
Harbors agreed to open and operate El Sol along with other
public access ways in western Malibu. The state Coastal
Conservancy awarded a $266,415 construction grant, including
$101,473 for El Sol's stairway.
Neighbors immediately mounted an aggressive lobbying campaign
to halt the opening, arguing that among other things, the
public would despoil the fragile environment. The county Board
of Supervisors postponed opening El Sol, with then-Supervisor
Deane Dana citing concerns about operating costs.
Even as the county failed to act, the state, which owned three
other "pocket beaches," moved forward and designated
them as El Pescador, El Matador and La Piedra -- collectively
called Robert H. Meyer Memorial State Beach.
But it took four years to open these beaches, as locals
lobbied to halt the project, saying the beaches were unsafe
for the public and that visitors would damage delicate marine
and biological habitats. When the state began work on the
site, vandals slashed tires, broke windshields and poured sand
in gas tanks of construction vehicles and pushed a trailer and
water truck over a cliff.
Initially the neighbors supported the beaches' public
purchase, said Don Neuwirth, who then managed the California
Coastal Commission's coastal access program, "because
they didn't want big ugly McMansions to go up, and then they
rallied to make sure they weren't developed as parks."
The county, he says, has been more swayed than the state by
neighborhood objections. "The county . . . was very
sympathetic to the Malibuvians and would not open that beach.
It still hasn't."
In 1990, neighbors persuaded state and county officials to
sell them the access road -- now gated -- that connects their
properties and El Sol to Pacific Coast Highway. The county
retained access rights to El Sol Beach "for parking,
enhanced coastal access and public recreation."
County records show that state officials offered an
ever-increasing amount of money to build the staircase and pay
for the opening and initial operation of El Sol. Each time,
county officials said the state wasn't offering enough money.
Meanwhile, neighbors continued to raise concerns about opening
the property.
"We've made every possible overture including buying
other land and trading it, a long-term lease and buying it
outright. Nothing has worked," said "Baywatch"
co-creator Bonann in a 2004 interview.
Bonann, who owns a house between Eisner's property and El Sol,
said at that time that the beach shouldn't be opened because
the hillside was unstable. "It's not safe for
anybody," Bonann said. "It's caving in right now and
infested with rabbits." He could not be reached for
further comment.
By the mid-1990s, Eisner had begun snapping up oceanfront
properties.
Eventually, he bought five parcels near El Sol through an
entity called The Rust Trust. Most of the properties had homes
or other structures on them, and he set out on an ambitious
project to rebuild or renovate the structures into a
Mediterranean compound of houses with two-toned tile roofs,
and even an underground elevator and tunnel to the beach.
The project dragged on with zoning and permitting battles,
records show. Eisner sued the California Coastal Commission
and five years later settled, gaining some concessions but
also agreeing to pay $115,000 to the state's Mountains
Recreation and Conservation Authority to help purchase other
Malibu property or restore coastal habitat damaged by
development.
In 1999, Eisner and his representatives learned of the
potential opening of El Sol Beach and began making inquiries,
a spokesman said.
Eisner's longtime lawyer, Irwin E. Russell of Beverly Hills,
wrote a letter on behalf of The Rust Trust and other
neighbors, saying, "We are very concerned that the
adverse impacts to the local community will far outweigh the
limited value for recreational use of this particular
property."
"The area available for parking is very small; parking on
PCH will create safety problems," Russell wrote.
"Moreover, the beach is very difficult to access because
of the height of the bluff and steepness of its face, and the
construction of a path to the beach will environmentally
degrade the natural coastal beauty."
Eisner, through a spokesman, denied he was involved in efforts
to purchase El Sol and declined to comment further.
Russell issued a statement saying the trust merely
"raised issues the county should consider with respect to
the development. We did not and do not oppose prudent
development of the site. The decision as to when and how is
obviously a matter for the county."
Eisner's interest raised red flags in county offices,
according to internal memos, e-mails and current and former
officials.
Joe Chesler, a longtime county employee who recently retired
from the Department of Beaches and Harbors, attributes the
county's inaction on opening the beach to "a lack of
political will" in the face of such powerful opposition.
"There wasn't the political will to move forward with
it," Chesler said. "The department was unwilling to
overcome the political pressure not to do anything on the
site. The supervisor was not that interested in seeing the
neighborhood change, despite the benefit to the public from
public access."
The sandy cove of El Sol, meanwhile, remains accessible only
to immediate neighbors and intrepid beach walkers willing to
make the 20-minute trek at low tide, scrambling between
algae-slick rocks and onrushing waves.
"It's one of the last little secret spots," Bonann
said.
ken.weiss@latimes.com.
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