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The state is threatening to step in to ensure Californians’ God-given right to surf.

The State Lands Commission may use powers never employed in its 77-year history, seizing private land for public use to end a battle between surfers and billionaire venture-capital investor Vinod Khosla, who has been locking a gate at his beach property along California’s Pacific Coast.

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“This is the route he’s chosen, and it’s unfortunate because certainly this is a property that hopefully can be available for those who want to come and enjoy it,” said Betty Yee, California’s controller and a commission member who would help make the eminent-domain decision. “My hope is that it can get resolved through negotiations.”

Khosla’s campaign to keep the public off the 36 hectares he owns on the crescent-shaped coastline marks the latest salvo in an income-inequality battle in which long-time residents are being priced out by the San Francisco Bay Area’s technology elite. The influx of highly paid tech workers and wealthy executives has generated resentment among those already worried about the area’s soaring cost of living.