Wealthy beachfront enclave goes to war with tourists as millionaire homeowners try to BAN hikers from stunning hillside overlooking city

Millionaire homeowners in California are trying to ban hikers from using a hill near their property — two years after they helped save the green space from developers by claiming they wanted to preserve it for public use.

A residents group in the affluent city of Ventura has raised concerns about plans to build formal hiking trails in the beautiful Mariano Rancho Preserve.

The trails – currently hiked by “prohibited” hikers – would create formal trails on the beautiful hills overlooking Ventura and the Pacific Ocean.

The group ‘Neighbors for the Ventura Hillside’ says allowing public access under the plans would be ‘surprising and unnecessarily intrusive to residents’. SF port reports.

The group was formed in 2015 and successfully killed plans for 55 homes on the site by insisting the land be preserved for ‘public walks’.

However, tensions have flared again after the current landowner, a conservation non-profit, unveiled plans to formalize the trail network and introduce parking by 2025.

Ventura Land Trust purchased the hill in 2020 with plans to preserve the green space. At the time, Neighbors for the Ventura Hillside called the acquisition “very good news” for its preservation.

Developers have been circling the 1,600 hectare green space since 2002 and locals were keen to prevent houses from being built there. A developer had proposed homes on the site in 2015, but received strong backlash from the community. Those plans were abandoned when the Trust purchased the property.

In 2022, the trust received $7.2 million from the state to complete the purchase and prepare the hill for public use.

But now Neighbors for the Ventura Hillside, led by Nick Bonge, have voiced opposition to the Trust’s proposals for formal walking trails, despite the area being popular with walkers for decades.

“With only a small amount of news about the trails, NVH has been inundated with questions about the future of this preserve and its potential impact on the city of Ventura and its residents,” according to a post on their Facebook page.

Concerns include estimates of up to 1,600 visitors per day. However, according to the Ventura Land Trust, this has now been revised to 274 hikers per day.

A post from the Neighbors for the Ventura Hillside also highlights how portions of the trail can be within 150 feet of homes, by comparison, trails in nearby Harmon Canyon are within 650 feet of homes.

‘[The Trust] plans to build a fence along the entire boundary of the site, which could block access and obscure the view of the homes,” the notice said.

The average price of a home in Ventura, where residents include Kevin Costner and Chuck star Zachary Levi, is currently more than $880,000, according to Zillow.

Neighbors for Ventura Hillside describes itself as “a grassroots organization created to protect the hills, farmland and open space of Ventura.”

It adds that it “played an active role in opposing a development project that the majority of residents believed was not suitable for the hill.”

During the group’s 2015 campaign to stop housing development, the word “save” was spelled out from sandbags on the hillside, although the group denied any responsibility.

However, its attitude toward Ventura Land Trust’s latest plans has earned it the nickname “Neighbors for Gatekeepers” among some disgruntled residents.

“So Neighbors for the Ventura Hillside have been advocating for the preservation of the hill for years…. And are we now in an uproar over public access to the hills they have sought to protect?’ Local Tanner Shelton wrote in a social media post.

“To put it bluntly, this smacks of gatekeeping of our community’s shared backyard by a disgruntled group of elitist homeowners.”

“The entire state needs housing, and you and others like you are making life harder. Now you can’t even let walkers use the space as intended? Get over yourself,” said user Dave Gillis.

“Pure, undistilled Not in My Backyard-ism,” Eugene Koontz added.

However, trust officials backed the proposed route plan, saying it has been used by walkers for years.

“People are always afraid of change because you don’t know what’s coming, and I feel like it’s a very human quality to imagine worst-case scenarios and let your brain run with them,” says Ventura Land Trust director says director Melissa Baffa.

‘From an empathy point of view, I can absolutely understand how scary it can be to think about strangers on the land right next to your house. The fact is, however, that people have been trespassing on Mariano Rancho land for generations.”

The clash bears similarities to the outrage sparked in nearby Montecito when millionaires in the exclusive city blocked a public path to a popular hot springs with huge boulders.

Montecito residents received angry letters from Santa Barbara County after passive aggressively placing boulders along the roads outside their homes.

The homeowners tried to deter visitors from the beautiful path near their homes that leads to hidden hot springs, who had parked on their street.