Martins Beach, the subject of a multi-decade struggle between the public and billionaire Vinod Khosla. Photo: Instagram//Surfrider
The fight for public access to Martins Beach in San Mateo County just won’t end. The ongoing struggle between beach users and billionaire Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla has been going on for 16 years at this point, and a new ruling this week brings the latest lawsuit against Khosla one step closer to a court date.
The saga began in 2008, when Khosla bought an 89-acre beachfront property in Sam Mateo County for $32 million. The property included a road long used by the public to access the adjacent Martins Beach, which he promptly gated off.
This prompted a 2013 lawsuit, filed by the Surfrider Foundation, in which a lower court eventually ruled that Khosla would have to open the gate. Khosla’s legal team appealed the decision all the way to the Supreme Court, which eventually refused to take up the appeal. Though the Supreme Court decision initially seemed to be the final word on Martins Beach access, in 2018 a San Francisco district appeals court ruled in favor of Khosla in a separate lawsuit, thus reopening the can of worms.
In response, the California State Lands Commission and California Coastal Commission filed another suit in 2020. Their argument is that, based on the principle of implied dedication, the fact that the public previously had long-term beach access establishes a permanent legal right to the road. Khosla and his legal team have been attempting to have the case thrown out, but on Friday, a San Mateo County Superior Court denied the request. According to SFGATE, a pretrial conference has been set for March 2025 and the bench trial will begin on April 22, 2025.
