Malibu sinkhole swallows access to best-kept secret SoCal beach below celebrity homes

Malibu’s weather woes keep piling up.

The headline-making sinkhole threatening to swallow a string of luxury homes on the city’s star-studded E. Sea Level Dr. has now claimed another casualty — public access to one of the LA area’s best, secret beaches.

Long overlooked by most visitors to the elite SoCal coastal paradise, secluded Lechuza Beach — just below the suddenly precarious palaces, one of them owned by actor Nicolas Cage — is closed indefinitely.

And while the beach itself reportedly wasn’t so battered as some in the region during last weekend’s Hurricane Marie-related storms, the ongoing drama above the sandy strand means LA is locked out of the site indefinitely.

“You could theoretically access the beach if you swam in from another location,” a representative for the Mountains & Recreation Conservation Authority told the California Post. “However, there is no safe access point from the street.”

Normally, Lechuza has three ways in — W. Sea Level Dr., via a pedestrian-only gate, a stairway at the corner of Bunnie Lane and Broad Beach Road, and at E. Sea Level Dr., via another gate.

The public rights-of-way are nestled among some of Malibu’s coveted real estate, including “James Bond” actor Pierce Brosnan’s $100 million Broad Beach Road compound, now reportedly hitting the market after 26 years.

For now, E. Sea Level Dr. is entirely off limits, due to the mandatory evacuation. The stairs at Bunnie Lane are closed. Pedestrians can still walk through the W. Sea Level Dr. gate, the agency said — where they can access the public viewpoint above the beach at the end of the street. The stairs down, however, are closed.

There’s no word on how long the restrictions will be in place.

“We are taking [it] day by day and cannot estimate the length of the closure because the public hazards that need to be mitigated are on adjacent land,” the MRCA representative said.

Lechuza had become a quiet favorite among in-the-know locals looking to avoid the crowds of day-trippers and influencers — who typically clog up parking lots at nearby beauty spots like El Matador State Beach.

The MRCA, which manages the site, was granted funds by California’s Coastal Conservancy to snap up the spectacular site nearly 25 years ago — prized by fans for its sense of seclusion, even on some of the busiest beach days.

The neighborhood has been home to everyone from Frank Sinatra to Dustin Hoffman — and scores of other Hollywood A-listers over the years.

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