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Governor Newsom signs bill opening public beach access to Hollister Ranch.

Governor Newsom signed a bill into law on Wednesday opening 8.5 miles of Hollister Ranch coastline to the public by land.

Wealthy landowners have fought for decades to keep the public out. They lobbied the Governor in recent weeks calling the bill unnecessary and legally questionable as Newsom considered whether to sign it.

Assembly Bill 1680 was introduced by Assembly Member Monique Limon in February. The bill amends The California Coastal Act of 1976 and requires that a public access plan must be developed by April 1, 2021, and the Ranch must be open to the public by April 1, 2022.

Governor Newsom said he believes California’s natural beauty should be open to everyone and for generations to come.

Hollister Ranch is known for its raw coastal landscape and its famous surf spots. Many surfers who wanted to ride the waves there had to boat in and drop anchor outside the surf line then paddle into the line up. However, that will all change with AB 1680. Now, anyone will be able to access miles of Hollister Ranch beaches by land.

The new law also makes it a crime to stop someone from using the public access. It also gives legal authority to carry out eminent domain to create the public access needed to meet the April 1, 2022 deadline.

The law just signed by Newsom is tougher than a similar measure vetoed by Governor Jerry Brown last year.

{“url”:”https://twitter.com/AsmMoniqueLimon/status/1182154092950351872″,”author_name”:”Asm. Monique Limón”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/AsmMoniqueLimon”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;&#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/AB1680?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#AB1680&#lt;/a&#gt; has been signed by Governor &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@GavinNewsom&#lt;/a&#gt; to begin a path to public access on the Gaviota Coast at Hollister Ranch. The state Legislature, the state Constitution and the Coastal Act have all reaffirmed the public’s right to the beach. 1/2&#lt;/p&#gt;— Asm. Monique Limón (@AsmMoniqueLimon) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/AsmMoniqueLimon/status/1182154092950351872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;October 10, 2019&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}

KEYT 2019

Article Topic Follows: California

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