While the guy is probably a jerk, it doesn't appear as cut and dry from reading the article. Unless I'm mistaken in my reading it was a private beach that had been previously open to the public versus a public beach that went private. Not veering into my opinion of private coastlines, it appears that he did violate a law by changing the public access, though he will probably just price it out of reach for most people out of spite since the law doesn't say anything about how much he can charge for parking. Which was what was monetized by the previous owners.

In a town near where I used to live there is a country house set in a beautiful deer park. While owned by the lord of the manor, the park had traditionally been open to the locals to use. Until one day the lord at the time decided he'd had enough of the riff raff tramping through his grounds and put big iron gates over the entrance. This was so unpopular that the locals ganged up one night and threw the gates from their hinges. Wisely, the lord took the hint and the gates have remained open ever since.

Rich people limiting access to previously public spaces has rarely gone down well.

HN has rich chronicle of Vinod Khosla's long-running war on the people of California:

https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Vinod%20Khosla%20beach&sort=by...

Ah! Billionaries.