We’re being fined for $4.7m after our HOA tried to stop the public walking behind our homes

A WEALTHY homeowners association has been fined $4.7 million for installing chain-link barriers to block a public walkway to the beach.

The ongoing feud between the Rio Del Mar Beach Island HOA in Aptos, California, about 9 miles south of Santa Cruz, and the California Coastal Commission dates back over two decades.

For years, the HOA’s 27 members of the wealthy community have fought against beachgoers using the roughly 25-foot-wide walkway behind their condos, according to court documents obtained by SF Gate.

The HOA has been receiving fines for obstructions of the pathway since 2002.

Debates over the ownership of the walkway have been ongoing since the 1980s when the HOA was first formed, SF Gate reported.

The ongoing dispute has led to the wealthy HOA members being fined more than $4.7 million from the California Coastal Commission in December 2023 for blocking the pathway from public use.

The public barring has led beachgoers to walk on the sand or the small streetside sidewalk in front of the condos.

HOA member Lisa, who owns one of the condos overlooking Beach Drive, cited privacy issues for fighting back against public use of the walkway.

“I don’t think people need to be walking behind people’s private property,” she told the outlet.

“I don’t prefer walking on the sand – that’s not my cup of tea. Yes, the sidewalks are sketchy in front of the houses.

“I don’t know about wheelchair access; I’ve not tried to put a wheelchair on there. But my opinion is, I think for them, it’s a privacy issue.

“For people to just come up off of the public beach and walk along that little small strip behind those houses and peer into their houses, for me, is completely unnecessary.”

The wealthy condo owners have made multiple attempts to block the pathway, only for officials from Santa Cruz County to tear them down, most recently in 2018.

“Whether it’s trash cans blocking the sidewalk in front of the Beach Drive homes or newly erected fences blocking the coastal walkway, it sure seems to like a lot of time, effort, and money is being spent to prevent any sort of safe, public access to the area,” Rio Del Mar Supervisor Zach Fried told Silicon Valley.com.

In December 2023, the Rio Del Mar Beach Island HOA filed a lawsuit against the California Coastal Commission, accusing the state agency of ignoring a 2022 ruling by a superior court that ruled “no public easement across the privately constructed and fully permitted nations on Beach Island exists.”

The lawsuit remains ongoing.