Photo: Alexander Spatari/Getty Images
Arguments at Malibu are nothing new. Just observe the lineup at the pier whenever there’s south swell. But a new lawsuit filed last week has accused a Malibu billionaire who owns a Major League Baseball team of something California says is a no-no: taking sand from a public beach and using it for a construction project near his home.
The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, claims that Mark Attanasio, owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, used excavators to move sand from Broad Beach to his house for a construction project. Broad Beach is 12 miles west of the Malibu Pier. The lawsuit was filed by Attanasio’s neighbor, James Kohlberg, son of Jerome Kohlberg, who founded the global investment company Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., according to The Los Angeles Times.
Related: Video: Surf Etiquette Is Nonexistent at Malibu
Attanasio bought the Broad Beach home for $23 million in 2007, according to the Times. Ten years later he bought an adjacent empty lot for $6.6 million. The lawsuit states that Attanasio got permits to repair a damaged section of seawall in March. But in June and July, construction crews from JILK Heavy Construction allegedly dredged sand from the beach onto Attanasio’s property and left gasoline on the beach. Kohlberg’s lawyers claim the company used excavators leaked oil in tidal zones, which threaten to “expose local marine life to potentially hazardous byproducts.”
Attanasio’s attorney defended the work in a statement saying his client’s company,2XMD, “is in the midst of a fully permitted emergency repair of the property to protect it from ocean forces. It has secured all permits necessary for the repairs from the City of Malibu and LA County as well as thoroughly vetted all contractors and sub-contractors involved in the project.
What does it all mean? It could be yet another test of public beach access in the state, something the California Coastal Act is supposed to protect. We’ve seen it tested in Northern California, when venture capitalist Vinod Khosla tried to block public beach access to his 89-acre, $32 million Martins Beach estate, just south of Half Moon Bay. The Surfrider Foundation sued, and the case almost went to the Supreme Court of the United States. The SCOTUS eventually let a lower-level court decide, which favored Surfrider. More appeals and suits were filed in 2020, however, and Khosla and the state appear poised to head to court again over the property dispute in the spring of 2025.
Related: History Of Surfing: Malibu, The Wave Of Magical Thinking