California land use lawyers will acknowledge that the California Coastal Commission commands jurisdiction over all development of residential and private enterprise along the California coast. In short, if one wants to build a home or simply pour a small slab of concrete for a mailbox along Pacific Ocean in California, a permit is required from… Read more »
Should a property owner have to get a coastal development permit before he can close the gate to his private property? The Surfrider Foundation thinks so, and if it wins its current lawsuit against Vinod Khosla that could soon be the law of the land in California. Vinod Khosla immigrated from India as a young… Read more »
Every monthly meeting the California Coastal Commission releases a list of bills in the current legislative session that it is supporting. It can be a time consuming effort to review all these bills, but sometimes you find a gem that sheds light on the nature of the Commission’s long-term goals, and the read becomes… Read more »
Whether the California Coastal Commission Eventually Regulates Fracking On the Outer Continental Shelf Will Have More to Do with Federalism than Science On February 12 and 13th, the California Coastal Commission had its monthly meeting. Of the topics discussed at that meeting, perhaps the one most likely to generate any news was the Commission’s… Read more »
The California Court of Appeal in Southern California recently prevented the California Coastal Commission from once again imposing draconian permit conditions in violation of the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution, which provides that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation. The case is Bay Island Club v. California… Read more »
Authorities at all levels are continually ratcheting up their efforts to meticulously enforce land use restrictions. In the process, they are increasingly testing the boundaries of their constitutional powers and encroaching further upon the constitutional rights of citizens. Accordingly, courts across the country are grappling with the question of when a governmental search of private… Read more »
