Billionaire wanted a California beach to himself. Supreme Court won’t hear his case.

A California beach will remain open to the public, after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take the case of a Silicon Valley billionaire seeking to close off its road access.

While the 40-year-old California Coastal Act protects the public’s right to walk on any beach in the state, at stake in the case of Surfrider Foundation v. Martins Beach was whether Vinod Khosla could erect a gate across a road used to get to a beach just south of Half Moon Bay, in San Mateo County.

The Surfrider Foundation took Khosla to court when he did just that, and in September 2014, the court ruled in the foundation’s favor, according to a statement from the coastal advocacy group; that ruling later was upheld by the state appeals court and the California Supreme Court.

By refusing Khosla’s case, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively signaled that the previous judicial ruling stands.

“Today, however, we celebrate a hard-fought win based on California law that, once again, has proven to protect our treasured natural resources,” according to a Surfrider Foundation statement.

Khosla purchased Martins Beach and surrounding property for $32.5 million in 2008, and erected a gate to close road access in 2010 “citing the cost of maintenance and liability insurance,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Khosla’s team released a statement Monday that they would comply with the ruling, but added that “no business owner should be forced to obtain a permit from the government to shut down a private business, to change prices from those that existed in 1972 (as the state has demanded), or to change hours of operation,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

A year ago, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a bill that would have authorized the state to purchase the property.

This story was originally published October 1, 2018 at 1:11 PM.