Mid-Strand: Locked Gates during Open Hours
By Vonne Barnes, San Clemente
On Saturday June 25, the Mid-Strand access gates were locked shut as citizens were denied their right of access to Central Strand Beach. The Mid-Strand access is the shortest route to the beach. Visitors returning from the beach found themselves trapped behind the gates. As there is no phone number posted on the gate to call for assistance, surfers, women and children climbed over the dangerous spiked wrought iron fence to return to the parking lot. Others climbed over the fence with beach gear to gain rightful access to the public pathway leading down to the beach. The locked gates with the spiked fence railings demonstrated nuisance conditions that threatened public safety.
Someone needed to be contacted who had a key to open the gate. My first call to the city resulted in a city recording. My second call to the sheriff’s dispatch yielded a return call from a city staffer, Matt, who said the city contracts with Soto Landscaping to lock/unlock the gates. He explained that Soto was presently working at a vintage car event at the St. Regis and that he would try to locate someone with a key. At 10:34 a.m. a Headlands security employee unlocked the gate.
Furthermore, the city has made much ado about Ordinance 10-05, and municipal code 13.04.030, Hours of Operation (h): “… the Mid-Strand Beach and Central Strand Beach access…shall be locked open during such hours as the Mid-Strand Beach Access and Central Strand Beach access are open.” Posted hours are from 8 a.m. – 7 p.m.
The gate has continuously not been “locked open” to prevent the door from closing and automatically locking shut during posted hours of operation. This is a violation of City Ordinance 10-05 and municipal code 13.04.030, Hours of Operation (h). It is also a public nuisance condition that threatens the safety and well-being of the beach visitors who may be locked in or out in the course of using the public access during posted operational hours.
The Coastal Act was created to protect the public right of access to the beach when local municipalities fail to do so. The City of Dana Point has failed to protect the public right of access to the beach during daytime hours of operation many times over. The city has failed to comply with Honorable Judge Lewis’ ruling, June 1, 2011, that says: “…the Court believes the matter would more appropriately be in the jurisdiction of the [Coastal] Commission for further action.” The city must comply with the Coastal Act provisions now.
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