PLF monitors Coastal Commission meeting

Author: Luke A. Wake

Pacific Legal Foundation's Coastal Land Rights Program advances its fight for property rights on all fronts. We continually monitor the California Coastal Commission, we educate citizens on threats to their rights, and we litigate to defend those rights. As part of our program, I will be attending this week's Coastal Commission meeting in Chula Vista. I am happy to speak with coastal landowners or their representatives at the meeting.

On Thursday I will be addressing the Commission during the public comment period. I will urge the Commission to reconsider its policy of conditioning building permits upon the landowners waiver of the right to build shoreline protective devices. This policy contravenes the precedent we set in the landmark case of Nollan v. California Coastal Commission. In that case, the Supreme Court made clear that conditions imposed upon permits must have an essential nexus to the impact of the proposed project, and that a condition that does not meet that standard is, "an out-and-out plan of extortion."