Professor Frank comments for L.A. Times about battle for public access to coastline

Professor of Environmental Practice Richard M. Frank provided context for a Los Angeles Times story detailing longtime and recently re-energized efforts to open parts of the pristine coastline of Santa Barbara County’s Hollister Ranch to the public.

Lawsuits from politically powerful landowners have held an ambitious public access plan in limbo since 1982, the Times story explains. But advocates for public access to the coast recently have taken a more assertive approach.

In August, a Santa Barbara judge allowed a coalition of community groups to challenge a recent settlement that granted only very limited access to visitors. Also last month, Assemblywoman Monique Límon introduced legislation that would allow for more aggressive strategies for obtaining access, like purchasing private land for public use through eminent domain. The State Lands Commission supports Límon’s bill.

But eminent domain has always been politically controversial, Frank told the newspaper. The Legislature’s action signals that lawmakers are “prepared to examine and potentially implement all legal means to preserve and promote maximum public access to the coast,” said Frank, who formerly served as California’s chief deputy attorney general for legal affairs and represented the Coastal and State Lands commissions.

But the new bill also raises the question of whether the public should pay to acquire access to a beach it already technically has rights to, Frank said.

Richard M. Frank ’74 is a leader in the field of environmental law, professor of environmental practice and the founding director of the California Environmental Law and Policy Center at UC Davis School of Law.

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