Silicon Valley Billionaire Takes Beach Public Access Fight To Supreme Court
HALF MOON BAY, Calif. (AP) -- A billionaire investor has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a California's appeals court that ordered him to open an access road to a beloved beach.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports Vinod Khosla on Thursday asked the court to let him keep its gates closed to the public. He says California is using its coastal protection law to violate his private property rights.
A San Francisco appeals court ruled in August that Khosla, a co-founder of Sun Mycrosystems, broke state law when he blocked the public from Martins Beach, south of Half Moon Bay. He bought a $32.5 million beachfront property there in 2008 about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of San Francisco.
His attorneys say California' courts wrongly decided that owners of private beachfront property need to first obtain the government's permission before exercising their private property rights.
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