A Closer Look -- The key to beach access

Alex Coolman

CAMEO SHORES -- For years it lay in rubble, the victim of harsh weather

and challenging legal restrictions.

But a collapsed beach access way here could finally be repaired, a

representative of the Cameo Community Assn. said last week.

The private concrete path -- which leads from a gated Milford Drive

entrance down through Morning Canyon to a secluded beach -- suffered

serious damage from winter rains in 1997 and 1998, according to documents

filed with the California Coastal Commission.

The path is impassable because large sections of it have plummeted into

the canyon. At the point where it terminates at the ocean, a small piece

of a staircase with a broken bit of a handrail testifies to years of

disuse.

Since last summer, the community association has been struggling to come

up with a proposal to repair the path that both area residents and the

Coastal Commission will consider acceptable.

A workable proposal could be ready in the next 30 days, said Barbara

Plimpton, a member of the community association’s board of directors.

TWO PATHS DIVERGEDWhen the path originally collapsed, residents

responded with a fairly ambitious plan, which was intended to make sure

the next structure built would be permanent.

The proposal involved creating a more elaborate path than is currently in

place, with an 11- to 14-foot high wall and a large concrete apron

extending out into the canyon. Parts of the canyon would have been

filled, and riprap, which is broken chunks of stones, added to support

the structure.

But the plan was given a negative staff report in August of 1999 by the

commission because of concerns about erosion and its effects on the

stream that runs through the canyon, said Anne Kramer, a staff analyst

with the Coastal Commission’s South Coast District.

Part of what makes the region touchy, Kramer said, is the presence of the

small stream, which runs through the canyon, and that the area has been

certified as an “environmentally sensitive habitat area.”

“The Coastal Act limits allowable uses in the case of filling in open

coastal waters,” Kramer said. “To provide a private access way is not an

allowable use.”

THE ACCESS QUESTION

Access has never been an easy question for Cameo Shores. The community

has three paths leading from its quiet streets down to the beach, but

they are locked and usable only by residents.

Though the beaches in front of Cameo shores are technically public from

the mean high tide line seaward, the only way for most people to reach

them is by walking from Corona del Mar or Crystal Cove during low tide.

The difficulty of actually getting to these beaches means that they are

used primarily by Cameo residents who have keys to the access gates or

beachfront property.

This kind of arrangement “is pretty limited” in California, Kramer said.

“It’s only in Orange County that you get these kinds of locked gate

communities” directly adjacent to the beach, she said.

At times over the years, the commission has pushed Cameo residents to

allow greater public access to the beaches.

But with the path that starts at Milford Drive, the commission has more

leverage behind its arguments than usual: Cameo residents themselves have

restricted beach access.

If the residents can’t make the commission happy, they end up stuck in

the same position as the general public -- tantalizingly close to the

beautiful shoreline, but cut off by a wall of expensive homes.

A SIMPLE PLAN

Though Plimpton said she was reluctant to discuss Cameo Shores’ plans for

the path in detail, she said the possibility that may resolve the

situation is a simple restoration of the path.

“We’re looking at that [option],” she said.

A reconstruction along the lines of the former structure might not be as

sturdy as the community association would like, but it would have the

option of being palatable to the Coastal Commission.

If Cameo residents decide to take this approach, Kramer said the

commission should have no objection.

The regulatory agency has a provision that allows a structure damaged in

a natural disaster to be replaced. Kramer noted that the community

association would need to “receive an exemption letter from us” even for

this relatively limited construction.

INTENSE SCRUTINY

For a project that involves little more than a few yards of walkway, the

Cameo Shores path has generated an intense degree of scrutiny and fairly

protracted negotiations.

For the commission’s part, Kramer said the Cameo community association

members have been “really good to work with” in their attention to

requested changes.

Though he has noted the degree of attention the Coastal Commission has

paid to this project, Dave Kiff, Newport Beach deputy city manager, said

he understands the intent behind the scrutiny.

“Their charge is to protect coastal resources, and if they believe

they’re doing that in this case, I don’t really have knowledge that would

contradict that,” he said.