Mogul Seeks $30 Million From California to Give Beach Access

[branford]

27. There are a lot of issues that the cited regulations do not appear to address,

many of which are fact specific to this case, and include issues of compensation that cannot be obviated by statute. That is likely the reason why this matter is still in litigation and the state has chosen to negotiate the financial value of the access, including an actual offer to purchase the easement and threats of eminent domain, both obviously requiring payment. The state may indeed have a good case, but the issues are do not appear to be as certain as you suggest.

After now reading too many articles on this matter, my legal instincts tell me that the state is not entirely confident about the current appeal, and might be afraid that someone of Khosla's legal and financial resources could ultimately fight any number of issues in both state and federal court, drag this out for ages, and even establish precedents that could potentially disturb the entire beach access regime in CA. If I were to guess about a resolution, I believe the parties will ultimately settle as CA doesn't want to use eminent domain which will lead to years more of litigation and uncertain outcomes, and Khosa probably doesn't care all that much about beach access, understands he may lose, and really just seems to be negotiating a better deal.

We should revisit this in about 60 to 90 days, right before the start of summer.