After nearly 50 years, a Long Beach homeowner’s association recently agreed to restore public pathways to a local park and a portion of Alamitos Bay after reaching a settlement with the California Coastal Commission.
Both Coastal Commission staff and the head of that homeowners association touted the agreement, with the latter person saying it will remain in perpetuity.
The issue dates back to 1976, when the developers of the Costa Del Sol housing development — now known as Bay Harbour — submitted an application for a coastal development permit from the state commission, which is charged with protecting and maintaining public access to coastal resources.
The developers obtained commission approval to build the 28-acre housing community, which consists of 221 single-family homes and sits between Pacific Coast Highway and what is now Jack Nichol Park. But approval came with several conditions intended to protect public access to a 700-yard area of the Alamitos Bay waterfront, which Long Beach eventually developed into the aforementioned park.
The Coastal Commission’s permit approval also required the housing community’s developers to construct a public pathway through the community to allow members of the public to access the eventual park and Alamitos Bay waterfront.
“The Greenbelt Access Way was intended to allow the public to more easily reach the bay and the future city park,” Rob Moddelmog, an enforcement attorney for the Coastal Commission, said during a July 9 hearing on the matter. “At the 1977 commission hearing for this project, the commission made clear how important public access is here. The commission found that the greenbelt access ways would help to promote pedestrian and bike access to the bay and to the future park, and would therefore help to avoid the need for parking, so there would be more actual park space for the public to enjoy.”
A public pathway through Bay Harbour that leads to Jack Nichol Park in Long Beach on Thursday, July 16, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
Dogs enjoy Jack Nichol Park in Long Beach on Thursday, July 16, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
The Jack Nichol Park is now accessible by a public pathway through Bay Harbour in Long Beach on Thursday, July 16, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
The public pathway through Bay Harbour leading to Jack Nichol Park in Long Beach on Thursday, July 16, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
The Jack Nichol Park is now accessible by a public pathway through the Bay Harbour community in Long Beach on Thursday, July 16, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
A public pathway through Bay Harbour that leads to Jack Nichol Park in Long Beach on Thursday, July 16, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
The Jack Nichol Park is now accessible by a public pathway through the Bay Harbour community in Long Beach on Thursday, July 16, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
A Thursday, July 9 Coastal Commission presentation shows locked gates at what are supposed to be public pathways leading to Jack Nichol Park at Bay Harbour in Long Beach. (Photo courtesy of California Coastal Commission).
A Thursday, July 9 Coastal Commission presentation shows locked gates at what are supposed to be public pathways leading to Jack Nichol Park at Bay Harbour in Long Beach. (Photo courtesy of California Coastal Commission).
A Thursday, July 9 Coastal Commission presentation shows Bay Harbour signage on a public road leading to Jack Nichol Park in Long Beach. (Photo courtesy of California Coastal Commission).
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A public pathway through Bay Harbour that leads to Jack Nichol Park in Long Beach on Thursday, July 16, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
Houses at Costa Del Sol (now Bay Harbour) were being bought and sold by 1983, according to a Coastal Commission staff report. The developers also constructed a bayfront walkway on the west side of Bay Harbor alongside a cross-shaped greenbelt going through the community, intended to serve as a public path for pedestrians to access the waterfront and eventual park.
But as early as 1983, according to the staff report, public access to the waterfront had been effectively cut off when closed gates were installed, making the area appear to be private property for use only by homeowners residing within Bay Harbour.
Construction on the park, meanwhile, was delayed for decades because of funding challenges, until it eventually opened to the public in 2006. In 1997, Moddelmog said, the California Department of Boating and Waterways agreed to fund the construction of the park.
“The city got most of the park as originally planned,” Moddelmog said, “but the proposed public restrooms were changed to be exclusively for people who rent boat slips there.”
But even after Jack Nichol Park opened to the public, according to the commission, the Bay Harbour HOA maintained various closed and locked gates at what were intended to be public access points to the greenbelt within the housing community — preventing people from getting to the park. There were also “Bay Harbour” signs on both sides of the only public road leading to the park.
“(The HOA) installed large “Bay Harbour” signs on both sides of the entrance to the Public Road, which provides the only vehicular entrance to Jack Nichol Park,” the staff report said. “These signs gave the public road the appearance of being the entrance to a private gated community, when, in fact, the road is public and leads directly to a public park.”
The signs, gates and other impediments, the commission has argued, significantly hindered the general public’s access to Jack Nichol Park for years — and were in direct violation of the conditions stipulated under the Coastal Commission’s approval of the original permit to develop the community in the first place.
“Notably, during this time, (the HOA’s) members enjoyed private access to the greenbelt accessways and the bayfront walkway that the (permit) required to be public,” the July 9 staff report said. “In addition, while members of the public who lived close (by) were more likely to be aware of the park and to drive there in spite of the signs, or to walk there, even those nearby residents would have found it more difficult to access the bayfront walkway or Jack Nichol Park given the gates, signs and closed pathways.”
And while those impediments may have been installed by the developers originally, Moddelmog said during the hearing, the HOA maintained them throughout the years.
The Coastal Commission became aware of those public access violations in 2019 after receiving complaints. The agency issued a notice of violation to the HOA the next year, the staff report said.
“In 2020 and 2021, Commission district enforcement staff discussed potential resolutions to the violations with Bay Harbour HOA,” the staff report said. “During that time, however, (the HOA) did not remove the unpermitted development and retained the locked gates to the greenbelt and the signs restricting public access.”
Instead, the HOA asked Long Beach to build a bike path along the public road leading to the park, which the city eventually did. But, the commission said, that wasn’t enough to remedy the myriad public access violations that had been ongoing for years. So the agency elevated the case to the commission’s Headquarters Enforcement unit in 2024 and began the process of issuing a cease-and-desist order and administrative penalty in 2024.
“Bay Harbour responded by immediately removing the unpermitted locked pedestrian gates and unpermitted signs restricting public access to the greenbelt accessways, and removed the gate on the bayfront walkway,” the staff report said. “The greenbelt accessways and bayfront walkway were thus opened to pedestrians; however, they did not have public access signs. In addition, the greenbelt accessways remained difficult to use with a wheelchair, and nearly impossible to use with bicycles.”
After that, the HOA began working collaboratively with the Coastal Commission to reach a resolution on the matter — which was formally approved by the body during the July 9 hearing.
As part of the settlement, in lieu of paying a monetary fine to the commission to remedy public access violations, the Bay Harbour HOA has agreed to fully restore public access to the greenbelt and public road, alongside various other environmental and public amenities to Jack Nichol Park and surrounding areas.
“Therefore, in total, we would say that the violations here would give rise to penalties in the high to moderate range under our regulations, if we were bringing this to you as a unilateral order,” Moddelmog said. “However, here, they’ve agreed to settle, and moreover, to work with us to fashion an agreement that’s of greater benefit to the public than merely complying with their permit, and of greater benefit than a monetary penalty would be as well.”
All the improvements the Bay Harbour HOA has agreed to implement as part of the settlement, Moddelmog said, are worth an estimated $2 to $2.5 million.
As part of the settlement, the HOA will install multiple new signs advertising the greenbelt accessway and public road as public paths leading to Jack Nichol park; and the HOA will ensure that those accessways are accessible for people with disabilities.
Since Jack Nichol Park is near other important coastal ecosystems — including the Los Cerritos Wetlands, Sims Pond and the Jack Dunster Marine Biological Reserve — the settlement will also require the HOA to implement a program to put in native plants at the park, which is currently home to many invasive non-native plant species.
The native planting effort will span five years, the commission said, and will help create an important connection between Jack Nichol Park and the other nearby ecosystems for wildlife, while also improving the park experience for human visitors, including by planting 21 new trees that will provide shade for people.
And lastly, the HOA has agreed to fund and construct several public amenities at Jack Nichol Park, including a public restroom, new benches, a water fountain/water bottle refill station, a dog bag waste receptable, a new bike rack and more.
“This will allow people who do not live nearby to enjoy the park and its bay views for as long as they want to, and make this area a much more comfortable place for the public to visit,” the staff report said. “In addition, (the HOA) has also agreed to fund the maintenance of the public restrooms for the first five years of their existence.”
The Coastal Commission unanimously approved the agreement on July 9.
“We are as a community happy with this resolution and grateful to staff for helping us to work together to find something that is really beneficial to the public,” Charlotte Hart, the HOA’s president, said during the hearing. “It was no one’s intention for this. But the resolution is just super productive, I think, is a good word — because it will go on in perpetuity, and not all things that we do in our lives do that.”
The public access improvements at Bay Harbour, the coastal commission said, are expected to go into effect immediately.