A Bolinas property owner and California Coastal Commission staff have reached a settlement that would allow a tech billionaire to rebuild a decaying seawall to protect his home at the end of Brighton
Avenue.

At high tide, crossing over the seawall is the only way for visitors to get to the western side of the beach. The seawall, now more than 50 years old, is also a popular spot for people to hang out and take in the view.

If approved by coastal commissioners at their meeting next week, the agreement would permit a wall narrower than property owner Mark Pincus originally proposed but wider than the commission approved in 2020.

The settlement resolves a lawsuit that Mr. Pincus filed against the commission two months after he was granted a coastal permit. His suit argued that the conditions imposed on his proposal, such as making the wall accessible to wheelchairs and adding benches, were unworkable  without more space.

His suit also argued that commissioners had not given him a fair hearing, citing dismissive remarks two of them made after viewing a video featuring comments from Bolinas community members who supported his plan.

After reviewing the case, Marin County Judge Andrew Sweet ordered the commission to hold a new hearing. As part of the proposed settlement, which was finalized last month, the commission would agree to drop its appeal of Judge Sweet’s ruling.

The agreement would allow Mr. Pincus to build a 10-foot-wide wall—significantly narrower than the 16-foot wall he originally proposed but wider than the 8-foot wall that the coastal commissioners approved several years ago.

The Bolinas Community Public Utility District, which owns the land beneath a small portion of the wall, submitted the original application with AMJT Capital LLC, a company controlled by Mr. Pincus. When the commission approved the narrower version of the wall, it imposed a series of conditions, one of which would have required BCPUD to monitor the wall’s condition, and share responsibility for maintaining it. 

Under the settlement, BCPUD would withdraw from the application and AMJT would assume those responsibilities. The utility district would grant the company an easement allowing it to do work on the portion of the wall that stands on its property.

If approved, the rebuilt wall would be accessible to wheelchairs and include two public benches. It would be separated from Mr. Pincus’s property by a six-foot-tall fence topped with a two-foot-tall trellis to prevent passersby from peering into his patio.

The coastal commission generally looks askance at seawalls, arguing that they are antithetical to natural resource preservation and even to public access. As sea levels rise and shoreline areas are lost, the commission maintains, such barriers prevent beaches from retreating, fixing the shoreline at the base of the armoring. 

But AMJT and the BCPUD argued that the seawall provides public access by connecting Brighton Avenue to an area of beach that is inaccessible at high tide. 

The coastal commission will hold a hearing on the settlement on Friday, March 15.

“I’m optimistic that the outcome will be a win-win for the parties, the Bolinas community, and the public,” said Steven H. Kaufmann, an attorney for Mr. Pincus. “It’s an acceptable compromise.”

Mr. Pincus, who founded the online gaming company Zynga, has owned the 4,800-square-foot oceanfront home at 100 Brighton Avenue since 2009. He first applied for a permit to rebuild the seawall in 2017.

At the 2020 hearing, two commissioners raised questions after he played a video including public comments from citizens. It was their skeptical remarks that prompted Judge Sweet to order a new hearing. Commissioner Sara Aminzadeh expressed doubts that so many public comments about the width of the seawall could have come from an organic, grassroots effort, and worried that a wealthy homeowner’s “tenacious lawyers” could be trying to “game the process.” She said she was “troubled by what feels like a very aggressive campaign by this tech individual. 

Commissioner Linda Escalante noted the polish of the video comments and said that she was “usually more trusting of more authentic presentations.”