Anyone can visit Hollister Ranch’s pristine coastline and beaches after state lawmakers last fall ended a decades-long battle in which private landowners sought to restrict access.
But the past is never dead. It’s not even past.
Now, a 105-acre estate within the massive preserve in Goleta has hit the market for $16 million, property that includes the original Hollister family home, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Dan Johnson of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties holds the listing, the Times reported.
And yes, the estate also includes a private trail leading down to the beach.
The property, which is on the market for the first time in 20 years, has a main house and a guesthouse totaling eight bedrooms. Both are at the base of the foothills, with views toward the ocean.
The sprawling grounds are the real attraction. A little less than half of the property is a protea flower farm. There’s also a lemon and avocado orchard, horse pasture and 800 feet of ocean bluff.
Most of the 14,500-acre Hollister Ranch property — stretching from Gaviota State Park and Point Concepcion in Santa Barbara County —is either nature preserve or cattle-grazing land. It’s divided into parcels and roughly 1,000 people own pieces of the property. Parcels in the area can’t be subdivided into less than 100 acres each.
Property owners have long fought to limit access to Hollister Ranch’s 8.5 miles of coastline, which state law says is open to the public. Owners argue they are stewards of the land and many worry that the public wouldn’t take good enough care of the beaches.
Owners have been battling with the state over access since at least the 1970s. State lawmakers seemingly addressed the issue last fall when they passed a law criminalizing any impedance or obstruction of public access to the coastline. [LAT] — Dennis Lynch