Last week, the designers of an iPhone app that would identify public access points to Malibu beaches successfully reached a fundraising goal of $30,000 to make it free to download.

The Our Malibu Beaches app is being hailed as a victory for public access by proponents, while some residents are concerned that increased visitors from the app could bring sanitation and law enforcement issues at public access points that currently lack restrooms, trash receptacles and regular patrols.

The app was inspired by environmental writer and longtime public access advocate Jenny Price, whose three-part series for LA Observed in 2007 shone a critical light on Malibus many well-kept secret access points and beaches.

The beaches arent private, said Price. There are a lot of public easements on dry sand, and we are just using the app to show beachgoers where they can go legally and avoid trespassing.

Many of the beaches in the more exclusive areas of Malibu, like Carbon Beach and Broad Beach, have long been inaccessible to outsiders, with vertical pathways from Pacific Coast Highway either owned by the county or granted easements by state agencies, but never being developed. The default result is that most people visiting Malibu believe that the 17 marked and open paths to the beach are the only legitimate access ways.

I know people in Malibu who live close to the beach, Price said. But they have to get in their car to drive two miles to find a way to the beach.

The problem is that the citys own coastal plan, written by the California Coastal Commission, calls for an access path every 1,000 feet, which would mean about 105 open pathways. The cost of such development can be prohibitively expensive.

It is more that issue than any desire to roll up the drawbridge and keep everybody out that prevents further access development, City Councilman John Sibert said.

Jefferson [Wagner, former city councilman] and I got the city moving to open access to Dan Blocker Beach, Sibert said. We get complaints all the time about no beach access, but the easements are there.

City Manager Jim Thorsen said that there are currently 52 recorded easements on the books, with about half available to use, and the rest are owned by other state agencies and in need of being developed.

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Malibu beaches app draws in donors, criticism