A 34-year-old irrevocable offer to dedicate public access and recreation along a Hollister Ranch beach and bluff top remains the prime point of contention in Santa Barbara Superior Court as Judge Colleen Sterne weighs pro-access arguments from a pair of state agencies against fierce opposition by property owners inside the exclusive 14,500-acre community west of Gaviota.
Notarized in 1982, the offer of public access was written to satisfy the California Coastal Commission as it permitted the development of a recreational camp on property owned at the time by the Metropolitan YMCA of Los Angeles. Since 1970, the YMCA had owned the 160-acre parcel in Cuarto Canyon, plus easements along the main ranch road and from the property to the nearby bluff and beach. While the YMCA camp was designed to accommodate 150 visiting members and upward of 50 staffers, the public access offer pledged to shuttle another 50 visitors from the general public per day from the ranch’s entrance gate to the 3,880-foot stretch of beach south of Cuarto Canyon.
The Hollister Ranch Owners Association (HROA) pulled the plug on YMCA’s ambitious project by purchasing the property for $1.2 million in 1983. However, according to court documents filed by the state’s Attorney General’s office, the public-access offer remained active, essentially grandfathered in as a property right predating the 1971 subdivision that created the Hollister Ranch and its owners association. Tasked by its enabling legislation to take advantage of the opportunity, the California State Coastal Conservancy — a non-regulatory state agency focused on protecting coastal resources and public access — picked up the offer in 2013. The ranch promptly sued.