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Legally Speaking

Legally Speaking

Legally Speaking is a new series intended to answers questions about the most frequent legal issues people in our community face. These community discussions, focusing on legal and financial life events, will take place at various locations throughout the county. Legally Speaking is also intended to raise awareness about legal and professional resources available through the Santa Cruz County BAR Association, the Santa Cruz County Law Library, and the Santa Cruz County Court.

Date:
Thursday, April 11, 2019 Show more dates
Time:
6:00pm - 7:00pm
Branch:
Scotts Valley
Audience:
  Adults  
Categories:
  Library Classes  
This April we'll look at Coastal Access. In California, there is no such thing as a private beach. The people own all beaches in the state up to at least mean high tide. Enshrined in the California Constitution is a clause stating that those who own beach front property cannot prevent the public from gaining access to the water. Despite this, more and more of the California coast is being closed off to the public. For years, wealthy individuals have bought beach front property and gone to extraordinary lengths to keep the public from accessing the public areas of the beach. They have hired security guards, erected fences, blocked public access paths, etc. They also know that they can afford the extraordinary expense of litigation knowing that litigation is beyond the reach of even dozens of citizens who might band together. Does the Constitutional provision mean that the public has unfettered rights to cross private property to get to the beach? If it means that the public has reasonable rights of access, what constitutes “reasonable”? How does the Coastal Act protect the public? What is a public dedication? Mr. Redenbacher is the lead attorney in one of the two lawsuits filed against billionaire beach front owner, Vinod Khosla, who gated off the only access road to Martin’s Beach, 10 miles below Half Moon Bay. What are the ways that citizens can assure that public beaches remain exactly that – public? Mr. Redenbacher will give an overview of the current battle affecting the public’s right of access and what, if anything, private citizens can do to continue to assure beach access. Last event in the series:

Thursday, May 9, 2019 ‘Labor Law’ w/ Gretchen Reganhardt & Lizett Rodriguez (CRLA) @ DTN

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