Pacific Palisades Rebuilding Obstruction: The California Coastal Commission

The California Coastal Commission: A Story of Power, Extortion, and Ruin, by the Pacific Legal Foundation is a powerful documentary about the sordid history of the highly politicalized commission, as well as their current obstruction in the rebuilding of the fire ravaged Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Altadena.

For some context, remember in October 2024, the California Coastal Commission voted to deny launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County because of Space X founder Elon Musk’s comments on X and his recent political activities.

The California Coastal Commission (CCC) is an unelected commission of political appointees that lords over locally elected city councils in cities and counties on the California coast.

The Globe reported on the CCC’s political bias:

“Elon Musk is hopping about the country, spewing and tweeting political falsehoods and attacking FEMA while claiming his desire to help the hurricane victims with free Starlink access to the internet,” said Commissioner Gretchen Newsom, who is not related to Governor Gavin Newsom. “It appears that rather than prioritizing the welfare of SpaceX employees and the environment, the focus has been on profit maximization.”

Commission chairwoman Caryl Hart added, “You could argue that it’s bringing in politics, but this is a political matter to some extent because it involves the US government, it involves the Coastal Commission. We are dealing with a company, the head of which has aggressively injected himself into the presidential race.”

This not only ruffled Musk – then-Assemblyman Bill Essayli (R-Riverside) sent a letter and California Public Records Act request to the coastal commissioners demanding all communications about Elon Musk and SpaceX.

In a Tweet on X, Musk made his case:

The Coastal Commission has one job – take care of the California coast. It is illegal for them to make decisions based on what they (mostly wrongly) think are my politics. For example, I have done more to advance sustainable energy & help the environment than maybe anyone ever, which is not exactly a “far-right” position. Yet here they are shamelessly breaking the law! They should resign immediately and face the appropriate legal consequences for their actions.

The Coastal Commission has one job – take care of the California coast.

It is illegal for them to make decisions based on what they (mostly wrongly) think are my politics.

For example, I have done more to advance sustainable energy & help the environment than maybe anyone… https://t.co/x5CF2WkVdA

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 15, 2024

The Globe reported that the California Coastal Commission’s environmental zealots have decades of regulatory activism, and are notorious for running roughshod over Californians’ property rights. The Pacific Legal Foundation has spent as many decades suing the CCC over gross violations of California property owners’ rights. If you want your blood to boil, read PLF’s big win in Nollan v. California Coastal Commission in which the Coastal Commission agreed to grant the Nollans’ building permit—but only if the Nollans consented to give away one-third of their property to the state.

Better than that, the Pacific Legal Foundation just published this short documentary about the out-of-control tyrannical state agency, which operates more like the mafia than public-interest regulators, and how the Coastal Commission is a significant part of holding up rebuilding in the Pacific Palisades – even after Gov. Gavin Newsom, known for his support of big-government, suspended the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the California Coastal Act to facilitate rebuilding. The PLF act asks why would such executive orders be necessary to rebuild after the Palisades fires?

This documentary from Pacific Legal Foundation tells the shocking story of the California Coastal Commission, an out-of-control state agency that controls over 1.5 million acres of coastal land.

You will learn: How one family was fined $4 million for nothing. Why the agency claimed one home was a “psychological barrier” and tried to extort the homeowner. The story of one homebuilder who’s taking the agency to the California Supreme Court. Through personal experience, archival footage, and legal history, this short film shows how a single bureaucratic agency became judge, jury, and executioner for California homeowners on the coast.

Pacific Legal Foundation, a national public interest law firm, represented the families featured in this film and won a landmark victory against the California Coastal Commission at the U.S. Supreme Court in Nollan v. California Coastal Commission. PLF currently represents Tim Shea against the Commission at the California Supreme Court in Shear Development v. California Coastal Commission.

The California Coastal Commission: A Story of Power, Extortion, and Ruin.

Ironically, the CCC has failed to actually protect and preserve the fragile California coast from erosion, mudslides, and overbuilding.

The agency of political appointees oversees California’s 840-mile coastline.

The California Coastal Commission was created following passage of Proposition 20 in 1972, and signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown in 1976 through the California Coastal Act.

Here are the appointed Coastal Commissioners: https://www.coastal.ca.gov/roster.html

There are a few more alternates vacancies. All commissioners but one were appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The Coastal Commission has been given a free pass for decades by the California Legislature to violate Californians’ rights. A new governor could put an end to that.