Lawsuit could redraw public access on Coast Walk

Whose Trail Is It, Anyway? La Jolla's Coast Walk Lands in Court

If you have ever strolled the wind-swept bluffs of La Jolla's Coast Walk, that breathtaking 0.6-mile path hugging the cliffs north of Prospect Street, you may have noticed some pointed signage along the way. Now those signs and the bigger question behind them have landed in San Diego Superior Court.

A freshly filed lawsuit is asking a judge to draw the line — literally — between private property and public trail along one of La Jolla's most beloved coastal walks. The plaintiffs are three limited liability companies managed by Teall and Carolyn Edds, the owners of 1585 Coast Walk and a neighboring parcel. Their complaint names the City of San Diego as a defendant and asks the court to clarify precisely where property lines end and public right-of-way begins.

The stakes are real. Coast Walk holds historic designation in city records as a pedestrian right-of-way, a status that requires both a Coastal Development Permit and a Site Development Permit before any repairs or realignment can happen. The trail was already closed after a slope failure, and a proposed repair and realignment project has been sitting in permitting limbo. The new lawsuit has effectively pumped the brakes on that administrative process entirely — no hearing date is yet on the calendar.

Public access advocates are not exactly cheering. They argue that posted notices along the trail already look like a quiet attempt to shrink what the public is entitled to use. For neighbors, the legal complexity has been simmering for years — the La Jolla Community Planning Association previously approved development at 1585 Coast Walk on the condition that the owners would not contest a court action to settle the right-of-way question.

Apparently that condition had an expiration date.

Sources: San Diego Union-Tribune | Hoodline | La Jolla Light | Coastal News Today | Friends of Coast Walk Trail