Articles

Today, we filed the latest brief in Mark and Bella Greene’s ongoing litigation against the California Coastal Commission. The Greenes are a retired couple who wish to remodel their house in Playa Del Rey, Los Angeles. Even though the Greenes’ plans were consistent with local and state laws, the Commission told them that they had … ...

The San Francisco Daily Journal published my op-ed today on last week’s California Court of Appeal decision in the Friends of Martin’s Beach case. As I have written before, in this case an advocacy group sued property owner Vinod Khosla claiming that the public is entitled to cross his property to reach the beach.  The group relied ...

Indiana Wants Me is a great pretty good not-half-bad not awful reasonably memorable Top 10 song from the 1970s. In light of Pacific Legal Foundation‘s recent experiences in the Hoosier State, methinks an enterprising pop artist could reprise the song and change the title to Indiana Wants My Property. The states bordering the Great Lakes hav ...

For several years now, PLF attorneys have been following Marin County’s efforts to amend its Local Coastal Program. In the past, we have submitted comment letters both to the Coastal Commission and the Marin County Board of Supervisors detailing our concerns with the proposed amendments’ effect on property rights. For example, we noted ...

Today, PLF filed an amicus brief in the California Court of Appeal defending the property rights of La Jolla coastal landowners Ure and Dianne Kretowicz. The Kretowiczs purchased their blufftop home from a bank after a foreclosure in 1994, unaware of any restrictions on the title. But when they tried to get a permit to … ...

Should the public have the right to cross private property simply because it is next to a navigable water body? The California Court of Appeal may decide just that when it takes up the ongoing controversy over access to Martins Beach. As we have blogged about before, for decades the owners of the coastal property … ...

We are thrilled to report that former PLF client, Roc Sansotta, has reached a settlement agreement with the Town of Nags Head, North Carolina, to the tune of $1.5 million! Under the agreement, the Town will essentially buy Sansotta’s beachfront property and cottages, and tear them down to make the land part of the public beach. … ...

The shoreline of the Great Lakes has given rise to many interesting property rights disputes between property owners and hungry governments looking to take private property without obeying the Constitution. Add the case of LBLHA, LLC, v. Town of Long Beach, Indiana, to that list. The states bordering the Great Lakes have a history of trying to ...

As Coastal Land Rights Week concludes, it is important to recognize that a tremendous amount of work remains to be done. Governments around the country seem set on taking property along the coast at no cost. Currently the greatest publicity tool these governments have is the prospect of climate change and global warming. In a … ...