It turns out that, though the California Coastal Commission has for years insisted that owners of beachfront land who want to build or make improvements to their homes, have to dedicate beach access paths — see Nollan v. Calif. Coastal Commission, 483 U.S. 825 (1987) — a lot of those paths have not been actually opened and exist only on paper. Tony Barboza, L.A. County Lags Behind Region in Beach Access, L.A. Times, January 16, 2012, at p. AA1 — click here.
Los Angeles County, notably — surprise, surprise! — the Malibu area, turns out to be the biggest offender. There, the Coastal Commission ordered 34 walkways to be constructed, but only 13 have been built and opened.