California Coastal Commission
UCLA Report Offers Framework for Resolving Coastal Conflicts
Shutterstock
Guest contributors Maeve Anderson and Mackay Peltzer write that regulatory updates are needed to ensure California’s coastal planning remains consistent with the intent of the Coastal Act.
California’s iconic coastline is simultaneously a source of pride and tension for the state. As increasingly severe storms, intensified by climate change, accelerate the erosion of beaches and bluffs, the conflict around land use at the coast has also intensified. Nowhere exemplifies this reality better than the City of Pacifica, a popular surfing destination located …
Continue reading “UCLA Report Offers Framework for Resolving Coastal Conflicts “
CONTINUE READINGDesalination: An Essential Part of California’s Water Future
Coastal Commission’s Recent Rejection of Huntington Beach Desalination Project Misguided
Let me begin this commentary with a disclaimer: I was an early and strong proponent of Proposition 20, the successful 1972 California voter initiative measure that enacted the Coastal Act and created the California Coastal Commission (albeit temporarily). I supported with equal enthusiasm the state Legislature’s 1976 enactment of legislation making both the Coastal Act …
Continue reading “Desalination: An Essential Part of California’s Water Future”
CONTINUE READINGGuest Blogger Ralph Faust: Improving Public Participation at the California Coastal Commission
The California Coastal Commission is a state agency whose mission is to preserve and manage the state’s coast. Its decisions regarding planning and development implement core state policies and determine individual legal rights. Both the perception and the reality of a fair, just, and accessible process is crucial to maintaining public confidence in the Commission’s decision-making. In February …
CONTINUE READINGIf You Can Buy a Coast, You Can Buy a Newspaper
Supreme Court’s California Coast Decision Will Be Back, No Matter What the Papers Say
High-fives, or at least, sighs of relief, from environmentalists this week, as the Supremes denied cert in Surfrider Foundation v. Martin’s Beach, a case where Sun Microsystems founder and multibillionaire Vinod Khosla challenged aspects of California’s Coastal Act. Article after article after editorial is celebrating this as a great victory for the environment and the …
Continue reading “If You Can Buy a Coast, You Can Buy a Newspaper”
CONTINUE READINGContentious California Beach Access Case Heads to U.S. Supreme Court
Longstanding Martins Beach Controversy May Well Capture Justices’ Attention
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018-19 Term is already shaping up as a big one for environmental law in general and the longstanding tension between private property rights and environmental regulation in particular. The Court has already agreed to hear and decide two cases next Term raising the latter set of issues: one involves the question …
Continue reading “Contentious California Beach Access Case Heads to U.S. Supreme Court”
CONTINUE READINGThe California Supreme Court’s Most Important Environmental Law Decisions of 2017
CEQA, Climate Change, Cannabis & Regulatory Takings Top the Justices’ Environmental Docket
As 2017 comes to a close, let’s take a moment to assess the California Supreme Court’s most significant environmental law decisions of the year. There are a large number of decided cases to choose from: as has been true over the past decade, in 2017 the California Supreme Court devoted a substantial portion of its …
Continue reading “The California Supreme Court’s Most Important Environmental Law Decisions of 2017”
CONTINUE READINGBreaking News: Coastal Commission Prevails in Major California Supreme Court Case
Justices Reject Property Owners’ “Regulatory Takings” Challenge to Seawall Permit Condition
The California Supreme Court today issued its long-awaited decision in Lynch v. California Coastal Commission, rejecting a lawsuit brought by San Diego beachfront homeowners claiming that permit conditions imposed by the Coastal Commission triggered a compensable taking of their private property rights. Writing for a unanimous Court, Justice Carol Corrigan concluded that the homeowners had forfeited …
Continue reading “Breaking News: Coastal Commission Prevails in Major California Supreme Court Case”
CONTINUE READINGThe California Supreme Court’s Environmental Docket: A Tale of Two Arguments
Justices Seem Likely to Reach Environmentally-Friendly Result in One Case, But Reject Environmentalists’ Claims in Other
Last week I posted a preview of three key environmental law cases that were scheduled for argument over two days in the California Supreme Court. I attended the arguments in two of those cases, held in San Francisco last Thursday. Here’s an account of what transpired, along with my predictions of the likely outcomes in …
Continue reading “The California Supreme Court’s Environmental Docket: A Tale of Two Arguments”
CONTINUE READINGReflections on the Coastal Commission’s Implosion
The Implications of the Decision to Fire Charles Lester – and the Decision Not to Explain It
As Rick Frank insightfully discussed earlier this week, the California Coastal Commission has fired its former executive director, Charles Lester. Readers interested in more background information and analysis should read Rick’s post, as well as the excellent reporting by Tony Barboza and others from the LA Times. (And anyone who wants to hear about it …
Continue reading “Reflections on the Coastal Commission’s Implosion”
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Coastal Commissioners Fire Executive Director Charles Lester
Personnel Dispute is Commission’s Biggest Political Controversy in Over a Decade
Following months of public controversy and a marathon 10 1/2 hour hearing Wednesday in Morro Bay, a closely-divided California Coastal Commission voted to fire its Executive Director, Charles Lester. The Commission vote to remove Lester was 7-5. Lester, who as Executive Director has led the Commission staff for the past 4 1/2 years, is the …
Continue reading “California Coastal Commissioners Fire Executive Director Charles Lester”
CONTINUE READINGJoin Our Mailing List
Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.
