Props to them for doing a civil service, but it seems to me that it is also very-much motivated by money.
That said, I would like to see this information make its way into OpenStreetMap, if it isn't already. In addition to just mapping out the paths, OSM has tags for access rights.
Your exclamation mark indicates that 30K is too much for an app like this, but I disagree because someone has to do the research to find each beach access point, identify false ones, organize the data into a database and build a app/web service around it.
For an average Silicon Valley salary, $30K is a quarter of a year's worth of salary. My guess is that more than three months of work was put into this.
I put the exclamation point there because it is my outsider perspective that the data has already been researched and compiled by the California Coastal Commission. An iPhone application has even already been submitted to Apple and approved (that's my understanding, their kickstarter page has changed over the last few weeks). They are raising the money so that they can "release the iPhone app for free", instead of charging for it. That is the reason for my exclamation point -- to believe that the app would compile 30k worth of purchases may be disingenuous.