Malibu Resident Suffers Massive Injustice, Must Allow Public Access to Beach

Photo by Lucyrk in LA via the LAist Featured Photos pool

Money might be able to buy you a house in Malibu, but it can't (well...shouldn't) buy you out of legal contracts. Coastal resident Lisette Ackerberg learned this the hard way, reports the Sacramento Bee.

Ackerberg reportedly wanted access to the beach near her property closed off to the public. To accomplish her goal, she offered to pay $250,000 and lawyer's fees to a nonprofit group called Access for All, which works to keep beaches open to the public. Faced with Ackerberg's offer, though, the group agreed to close down the access point.

But unfortunately for both parties, a judge ruled that the point should stay open, since it was a condition of the development permit that Ackerberg acquired in the 1980s.

Tough break, Ackerberg. I guess you're going to have to let the GP in.

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By Jessica Pauline Ogilvie in News on July 13, 2011 4:00 PM

Comments [rss]

E

This is the ONLY reason I don't live in Malibu,lol!

guidopilot

I don't blame Ackerberg at all. I live at the beach. I realize that people have a right to access the beach, and it doesn't belong to any one person. That being said, I'm petrified with fear whenever a summer holiday looms - knowing full well that the beach to the side and in front of my house will be littered with empty beer cans (it's illegal to drink on the beach in LA County), cigarette butts (it's illegal to smoke on LA County beaches), dog poop (yes, dogs are not allowed either), trash, vomit, smashed food, destroyed beach furniture.

People come to the beach and destroy it. There is no respect for the land and no respect for the neighborhood where other people live. I sincerely doubt it if one of these people would like it very much if I showed up in their back yard one morning and started blasting my music and throwing trash around their yard while my dog craps all over their lawn, they would be doing everything in their power to stop me.

I say "good on you" Lisette Ackerberg.

SeismicPrinciples

I guess you shouldn't have picked a public facility to be your backyard, then.

Up_Against_The_Law

Oh, the injustice.

RedMercury

While I expect that kind of behavior from some snooty Malibu resident, I'm more surprised that "Access for All", a non-profit group which works to keep beach access open to the public, agreed to look the other way for a quarter of a million dollars.

Sounds a bit like a protection racket. "Nice place you have here. It'd be a shame if you had to fight a lawsuit over beach access..."