SLT making it easier to access Connolly Beach
South Lake Tahoe officials want to ensure the public has access to Connolly Beach. Photos/Kathryn Reed
By Kathryn Reed
Three bear boxes, boulders and a beat up bike rack are what welcome the public to Connolly Beach from the parking lot. The pavement is in disrepair. Vehicle access is through the hotel maze.
A sign says no alcohol is allowed on the beach, but the owners of the Beach Retreat Hotel have set up a bar. Farther down are four hammocks with signs saying they are only for hotel guests.
This stretch of sand in the middle of South Lake Tahoe has been contentious for years. And even though the state Supreme Court has weighed in on the topic, the city and current owner – Urbana Realty Advisors – are still not on the same page.
“I feel excluded even though I know my feet treaded there as a kid,” Sue Hoy told the City Council on Tuesday. She said the beach is now “totally unwelcoming.”
Hotel owners have strung private hammocks on the public beach.
As with all beaches in California, the public has a right to access the sand below the high-water mark at any hour of the day, every day of year.
The court, though, ruled the public also has access from the high-water mark – 6,229.1 feet – to 100 feet toward the hotel. No one bothered to survey this at the time of the 1985 decision. The city recently did. That 100 feet goes into the buildings.
This is why the city wants all of the beach to be accessible to the public. The courts said so. However, access to the 100 feet from the high-water mark is only available June 1-Sept. 30, sunrise to sunset.
The South Lake Tahoe City Council on May 19 was updated on where things stand regarding what is better known as Timber Cove Beach and gave staff direction on how to proceed.
No one from the property attended the meeting.
“They can’t ask the public to leave unless they are disruptive,” City Manager Nancy Kerry explained.
The gate at Bal Bijou is coming down by the end of May.
The gate at Bal Bijou will be removed before June 1 so the public has access to the beach parking area without having to drive through the hotel property. A tree needs to come down and paving in some areas will occur.
Eighteen of the parking spots are public.
Signage will be placed on the beach to help explain ownership and usage issues.
The California Tahoe Conservancy is also interested in ensuring the public has access. It owns a tiny lot to the west of the Beach Retreat property. With the lake so low, it’s possible to walk from the CTC lot to Connolly Beach without any obstruction.
Chris Mertens, an environmental planner with CTC, said his agency wants to provide another access point to Connolly Beach. To make that happen talks need to be initiated with the hotel owners as well as Tahoe Shores, which is on the other side of the CTC lot.
Another issue the city is working on is how to actually spell Connolly.
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In other action:
- The council accepted a $98,000 donation from Lisa Maloff for the purchase of a K-9. The money will also pay for the four-legged officer’s training and equipment.
- Pump Trax was awarded the $60,550 bid to design and oversee the construction of the Bijou Bike Park.
Awesome job city council and CTC! I hope to see more public access to South Lake beaches in the near future! We need to make a public beach access signage program like they do along the California coast.
The Beach Retreat needs to be boycotted by locals. What a scam they are trying to pull. Even though the previous ownership did the same thing, it is still reprehensible . Good job by the city to finally insist on the legal judgement. Can’t wait to see what else the Beach Retreat has up their sleeve come June 1.
AS someone who has had experience with the tangle that is, or was Connely Beach, I am glad to see some progress being made in the way of clarity on this issue.
thank you city council, stay on them, so wonderful to see things getting done for the locals. I think more has been done for the city with this city manager then the last 5. That beach goes way back for locals, and that hotel isn’t all that. GREAT JOB
This place needs a new marking department. Now when people check them out on line this conflict shows up.
On top of that most of the locals didn’t know or care about this beach until they acted like an idiot.
They’re giving away $25.00 gift certificates on Lake Tahoe TV then piss off the locals.
I would suggest in the further negotiations like Mr. Sass said trade square foot for square foot for the building on public accessed beach. Or give the Beach Retreat 10 feet of the public beach back and make the whole Conolley Beach 24/7 365 days for ever. I guess the building could be taken out.
If this Beach Retreat company would have had a sleazier marketing and legal team they could have continued to screw the locals out of their property rights forever-that’s how the ‘greed is good’ rusholes think
Buck, I would think that in this case if it went to court, the court more than likely would side with The Beach Retreat, as the building was already up when the court made its decision. It is even possible that the court would make a certain setback that would say that 10 ft(could be even more) from the building is not public easement. The Court may have made a mistake in the order would have violated the constitution as an illegal taking of property without compensation if they required the building to be torn down. It may also be that in the last 30 years the mean high tide may have changed over the years, as may sometimes happen.
^^ As if on cue
I wonder if the Beach Retreat will back down or take this to the next level and close the pier?
Good news, except why did the City haggle with them in the first place? Small businesses they order around. Big ones they negotiate with?
And is the Beach back up on the City website? And still love to know under whose orders it was taken down from the website in the first place?
Reloman: The courts have ruled on this 30 something years ago and I think judges today are even more public rights for beach access. Also if you build something and don’t get a survey and it’s not yours for 4 months a year shame on you. P.S. it should be in the closing papers in escrow when Urbana purchased the property. Sunriser: closing the pier would kill 2 or 3 small business but we have seen new owners (like Tahoe Keys Marina) do this very thing.
To answer my own question, the website has not been updated yet. (Again, why was the Beach taken off the website in the first place?)
Hopefully it can be updated ASAP as it doesn’t take long to update a website. And hopefully it’s updated with its proper name, Connolly, or its more known name, Timber Cove!
Not the name the hotel owners were trying to finagle, The Beach at The Beach Retreat. Ugh!
Yes it would be nice to see it on the city’s website. That was one of the items that the staff was tasked to complete at last fall’s city council meeting. Obviously a lot of foot dragging over the whole public access issue by the city. Wonder why? In addition, the Tahoe Conservancy has owned a right-of-way between Connelly Beach and Tahoe Shores (the quarter share condos to the west)for probably close to ten years. That was also suppose to provide access to the beach. Wondering why that has not been opened up?