Five Stinson Beach homeowners face complaint over fences
Five Stinson Beach homeowners face formal complaint that their fences might violate public beach access
A formal complaint about five Stinson Beach homeowners' fences, has prompted Marin County to launch an investigation into the property boundaries and whether the homeowners have constructed illegal fences on a public beach.
STINSON BEACH, Calif. - Five property owners along Stinson Beach have received letters from Marin County, after a formal complaint was filed questioning whether they had constructed illegal fences blocking access to the public beach.
Some regular beach visitors said they had noticed several new posts with ropes strung up around houses near the public parking lot.
"It is a public beach, so that was kind of startling when we first saw it. It was just unexpected," Dasha LaMoure of Novato said.
"If it's fenced off, we stay pretty much in this area," Sylvia Moslang of Novato said.
Marin County's communications director Laine Hendricks says the county received the formal complaint on August 13th and immediately began investigating.
"Normally, a public beach would fall under the California Coastal Commission's jurisdiction, but what they oversee is up to the high tide line. Because this fencing falls above that line, it falls to the county to investigate," Hendricks said.
Marin County notified all five of the homeowners and sent investigators out to survey the properties. The properties include: 25 Calle Del Resaca, 28 Calle Del Onda, 28 Calle Del Pinos, 23 Calle Del Pinos, and 32 Calle Del Pradero.
Hendricks says two of the properties, 23 Calle Del Pinos and 32 Calle Del Pradero, already have active enforcement cases pertaining to illegal construction of accessory structures. The property owner at 32 Calle Del Pradero says she has owned the land for 52 years and their fence is within their property line.
Jonathan Cummins, who lives down the street, says he is friends with some of the property owners who received the notice.
He says homeowners do face a problem on warm days when thousands of beach visitors descend on Stinson Beach. He says some of them trespass and sit on homeowners' private property, or even seek shade and shelter from the wind underneath some of the homes.
"My friend ends up having to clean up dog poop underneath there, or they'll just camp underneath there," Cummins said.
Marin County says even if homeowners put up a fence on their private property, they still need to get a permit.
Any fences found on public land will need to be removed.
"If they were to rope that off so people could not enjoy the beach, that's privatization of the beach," Hendricks said.
Hendricks says the county investigators expect to make a determination on the complaint in the next several weeks.
Jana Katsuyama is a reporter for KTVU. Email Jana at jana.katsuyama@fox.com. Call her at 510-326-5529. Or follow her on Twitter @JanaKTVU and read her other reports on her bio page.