Officials Forget Their Duty on Beach Access

As custodians of the public’s shoreline, coastal communities are certainly morally, if not legally, obligated to keep access to the beachfront open to all. That means not allowing construction of anything that would interfere with public access to the beach, or in any way hinder people from reaching it.

At times, city officials in Huntington Beach have been prone to forget their duties as public trustees, and as a result they’ve treated the shoreline less as a trust than as a money cow to be milked for revenue.

Earlier this year, in a revenue-raising move, the city raised its daily parking fees at the beaches from $4 to $6 a day while reducing the cost of annual parking passes for residents from $40 to $30. The move favored local residents at the expense of out-of-towners and probably cut the number of beach days that poorer people could afford.

Now, Huntington Beach is pushing its multimillion-dollar downtown redevelopment plan, designed to bring a row of restaurants to the beachfront on the paved public parking lot between Main and Lake streets south of the municipal pier.

But the city’s latest move has run into formidable opposition from an unexpected source--the State Lands Commission. The commission decided to give Huntington Beach officials a stern reminder of their responsibilities as trustees of the public shoreline by suing to block redevelopment plans.

As state officials rightfully see it, “the sandy beaches of California are a limited resource,” and they are determined that the public will continue to have access to them. Huntington Beach won an easement in 1932 on the grounds that its people needed access to recreation. State officials also seem determined that the public easement not be usurped for private development.

To state officials, the legal effort means more than just fighting a threat to the public’s access to the ocean in Huntington Beach. It is a battleground that serves warning to other coastal cities that may be tempted to convert publicly held land to private use.

As population grows, the demand on the limited beachfront increases. It would be irresponsible to convert the shoreline into a succession of apartments, hotels, motels, commercial buildings and restaurants that cut off public access and view of the shore. Huntington Beach officials realized that 57 years ago when they chose the public need over greed. The current City Council members should be as responsible to posterity.