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Posted by The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay on Friday, May 17, 2019
The Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay has been hit with an order to pay $1.6 million in penalties to the California Coastal Commission after years of state coastal law violations, including blocking beach access.
The hotel, which boasts $1,000-a-night rooms, Silicon Valley retreats, a golf course, and a spa, agreed to pay the fines on Thursday after a commission meeting in San Diego approved them.
It’s been an uphill battle for the hotel since the building plans first came under public scrutiny. Built in 2001, the years prior were spent fighting with environmentalists and San Mateo County residents who said the luxury hotel would block their beach access to two beaches, to which they have a legal right in California.
According to The Mercury News, when the Coastal Commission first issued the building permit to the hotel giant in the 1990s, it came with a few provisos: “the agency required the Ritz to build a free public parking lot with 15 spaces overlooking Cañada Verde Beach, a scenic beach just south of the hotel. The commission also gave the hotel the option of building a second public beach parking lot a mile north at Redondo Beach or allowing the public to park for free in the hotel’s parking garage. The hotel owners chose to set aside 25 public spaces in its garage for beach goers.”
As time went on, however, those public parking spaces became not so public. Valets routinely parked hotel guests’ cars in them or shooed the public away. The Coastal Commission routinely fined them for these violations, but as is so often the case when dealing with mega-wealthy corporations, paying the fines was easier than fixing the problem. The hotel also conveniently neglected to put up signs that expressly told the public they were free to use the beach.
In 2004, the Ritz-Carlon shelled out $50,000 for violating numerous California coastal laws, promised they’d change, but then continued on with business as usual. Twice more, in 2007 and 2011, the hotel was forced to pay for their mistakes, but it still didn’t change things. After years of frustration, Coastal Commissioners were livid.
“When I see these legacy violations, there’s outrage and exhaustion,” said Commissioner Donne Brownsey. “You think about the families and local folks and visitors who have not been able to go to those beaches for almost a generation.”
The Surfrider Foundation isn’t happy, either. At least one representative suspects it’s not an accident that the Ritz-Carlton isn’t being transparent about the fact that residents are allowed to have beach access. “Perhaps creating the illusion of a private beach helps justify the exorbitant cost of the rooms,” said Mandy Sackett, state policy director for the Surfrider Foundation.
The $1.6 million fine was agreed on by hotel owners after a lengthy negotiation that came after looking down the barrel of spending years in court. Six-hundred thousand of it will go to a Palo Alto-based land conservation group called the Peninsula Open Space Trust. That money will be used to knock the edge off the purchase price of a 27-acre property next door, where public beach access will—hopefully, at least—be readily available. The rest goes to the Coastal Commission’s coffers “that provides signs, trails, staircases, and other amenities to help the public use beaches around the state.”
Aside from the $1.6 million, Ritz-Carlton is also required to build its beach parking lot to accommodate 22 public spaces, install signage telling the public they’re allowed on the beach, and, interestingly, do a study on how it can reduce the amount of plastic it uses.
Still though, in the wake of the hotel’s troubled past, commissioners aren’t going to be satisfied until all the requirements are met. “Past behavior is a predictor of future behavior,” said Commissioner Aaron Peskin. “Not always, but often. I don’t want this to be another Charlie Brown, Lucy and the football situation.”
