California Coastal Commission denies petition

Last Friday, the California Coastal Commission denied our petition, submitted on behalf of the Beach & Bluff Conservancy, to repeal the Commission’s after-the-fact permit fee regulation.  The Commission concluded that charging presumptively five times, and in no case less than twice, what it would charge for a comparable before-the-fact permit was a “reasonable” amount and not punitive.  Given that the five-times multiplier is only a few years old, yet the Commission has been issuing after-the-fact permits for decades, it’s hard to credit the Commission’s disavowal of any punitive motive:  would the Commission have routinely undercharged by 80% for so many permits for so long?