Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla has a new critic in his years-long effort to limit public access to a beach along the San Mateo County coast: the world’s richest man.
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Martins Beach: Billionaire Vinod Khosla loses bid to halt state lawsuit seeking more public beach access
On Saturday, Elon Musk slammed Khosla, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, over Khosla’s actions on Martins Beach, a scenic stretch of sand seven miles south of Half Moon Bay.
“Wow, so crazy that @vkhosla put this sign on a public beach,” Musk posted on “X,” the social media site formerly known as Twitter that he purchased in 2022 and renamed.
Musk’s post depicted an image of what appeared to be an AI-generated sign on a beach that said “No plebs allowed. Property of Vinod Khosla.”
In two separate posts minutes later, Musk added: “Vinod says we should send tens of thousands of unvetted migrants to small towns throughout America, but he didn’t even want to let the public walk on his beach… I’m throwing a party on Vinod’s beach! For cuisine, I’m thinking BBQ.”
Wow, so crazy that @vkhosla put this sign on a public beach pic.twitter.com/ln46n07kvw
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 21, 2024
The Bay Area News Group reported on Friday that a San Mateo County Court judge had handed Khosla an important legal loss Thursday, turning down his motions to throw out a lawsuit from the California Coastal Commission and the State Lands Commission, which sued him in 2020 to force more public access to the beach. Superior Court Judge Raymond Swope ruled Thursday that the case will move forward, and is scheduled for a trial in April.
In response to Musk’s social media attack Saturday, Khosla slammed him for his recent support of Donald Trump for president. Khosla hosted a fundraiser at his Portola Valley house earlier this year for President Joe Biden before Biden decided not to run for re-election.
“Keeping up with your new mentor @realDonaldTrump in tweeting fictional photographs or at least not one I have ever seen,” Khosla wrote. “There has NEVER been a dispute on access to the beach (which is public ), just accessing it thru private property.”
He referred to the staff at the Coastal Commission as “commies” and told Musk: “Get details before you tweet nonsense.”
Keeping up with your new mentor @realDonaldTrump in tweeting fictional photographs or atleast not one I have ever seen. There has NEVER been a dispute on access to the beach (which is public ), just accessing it thru private property. Every court ruling and appeal of the Friends… https://t.co/5PVE8uxDpH
— Vinod Khosla (@vkhosla) September 21, 2024
Their standoff veered toward a back-and-forth argument about immigration, and after Khosla asked whether Musk believes the 2020 election was stolen, as Trump falsely claims, Musk replied:
“You won’t even let people use your f***ng beach, you a**hole!”
To which Khosla retorted: “Name calling and irrelevant fictional pics is the best you can do instead of answer the question: Did Trump stop thru his lobbying a strong illegal immigration bill that had strong bipartisan support?”
Khosla has made few public statements about the Martins Beach case. But the issue has drawn national attention for more than a decade. Khosla has described it as a case of private property rights, while political leaders, surfers and environmentalists have said the issue could set a precedent about whether California’s beaches can be closed off by wealthy landowners.
Khosla, 69, is worth $7.3 billion according to Forbes. Musk, 53, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is worth $257 billion, according to Forbes.
The beach battle began more than 15 years ago. In 2008, Khosla spent $32.5 million to purchase 88 acres of coastal land along Highway 1 that surrounds Martins Beach, a property that had been used by families for generations. Two years later, he locked the gates, hired guards and posted no trespassing signs.
Surfers and environmental groups protested. They noted that because the beach, which is public along the water line under the Coastal Act, is flanked on both sides by steep cliffs, the road is the only way to access it.
The Coastal Commission told Khosla that he must apply for a permit to lock the gate. The Surfrider Foundation, a non-profit group, sued him over the issue. After he lost that case in the lower courts, he appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the state’s landmark Coastal Act, approved by voters in 1972, was “Orwellian” and unconstitutional.
In 2018, the Supreme Court refused to take the case. The justices left in place lower court rulings that found Khosla could not lock the gate across the half-mile-long road without a permit from the Coastal Commission because the Coastal Act requires permits if landowners change public access to beaches.
Today, Khosla leaves the gate open at varying times, allowing people to drive half a mile down to a parking lot near the beach and pay $10 to park. Five years ago, he won a different lawsuit when a small nonprofit group, Friends of Martins Beach, sued him, claiming the public had a historic right over the road because it had been used by generations of families.
But then the Coastal Commission and State Lands Commission sued him in 2020 over the same issue, this time presenting letters, photographs and other evidence from more than 200 families dating back to the 1920s establishing that they used the road and the beach, often without paying.
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If Khosla loses the latest case, it will be virtually impossible for him to obtain a permit from the Coastal Commission to close the gate. The commission would probably rule the parking fee is illegal, and the state could hit him with fines totaling tens of millions of dollars. If Khosla wins, he could have a stronger argument to close the gate — namely that there was never any legal public access to the beach.
Name calling and irrelevant fictional pics is the best you can do instead of answer the question: Did Trump stop thru his lobbying a strong illegal immigration bill that had strong bipartisan support? https://t.co/ZGKaIteH62
— Vinod Khosla (@vkhosla) September 21, 2024
