Judge Tosses California Coastline Signpost Suit
The owners of an oceanfront home in Malibu, California, are defending their plan to install signposts marking where the public beach ends and their private property begins.
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California Coastal Commission
LA to Pay $1.9 Million for Utility Crew Damage to Endangered Plants
The city of Los Angeles agreed to pay nearly $2 million in fines for bulldozing over nine acres of a state park in the Santa Monica Mountains and trampling an endangered plant species while replacing power poles near the affluent coastal neighborhood of Pacific Palisades.
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Coastal Commission Punts Decision on Future of Off-Road Recreation at California Beach
Even though members of the California Coastal Commission believe the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area could be subject to Governor Gavin Newsom’s order this week protecting state lands and waters, they did not get to vote Thursday on a public works plan regarding future use and development of the park.
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Coastal Watchdog Orders California Beach Closed to Protect Nesting Birds
Endangered California shorebirds who took advantage of pandemic beach closures to expand their nesting area on a Northern California beach won’t be evicted, the California Coastal Commission announced Wednesday after it reached an agreement with State Parks to keep the beach closed through the fall.
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SoCal Homeowners Fined $1.7 Million for Encroaching on Beach
Private property owners in Southern California were fined $1.7 million on Thursday for violating public access to Newport Beach for decades by creating illegal yard extensions of their beachfront properties onto the sandy public beaches.
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Coastal Watchdog OKs Local Beach Closures Due to Pandemic
The coronavirus health crisis trumps the right of all Californians to freely access their beaches — for the time being, at least.
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Officials Approve California Coastal Conservation Plan
California officials laid out an ambitious and sweeping plan Wednesday to combat the climate crisis threatening the California coast.
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Monterey Bay Desalination Plant Debated by Coastal Commission
The Monterey Peninsula is running out of water.
Read moreCalifornia’s State and Local Interest Spar Over Sea Level Rise
Elected officials from cities and counties up and down coastal California agreed with state officials that sea level rise as a result of climate change is “happening now.”
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Feds Punt on Plan to Control Island Mouse Problem With Poison
The ashy storm petrel of the Farallon Islands is in trouble. The tiny bird’s problem? An invasion of house mice.
Read moreRitz-Carlton Hit With $1.6 Million Fine Over Beach Access
The California Coastal Commission fined one of the swankiest hotels on the Central Coast $1.6 million for a continued pattern of preventing access to a nearby public beach.
Read moreCalifornia Fines Unpermitted Luxury Hotel $15.6 Million
Sending a message about the value of maintaining affordable visitor accommodations along California’s coast, the state’s Coastal Commission on Wednesday issued its largest fine ever — $15.58 million — to a luxury hotel owner that demolished two affordable motels in Santa Monica to build a high-priced property near the world-famous pier.
Read moreJudge Declines Review of Freeze on California Offshore Fracking Permits
A federal judge on Tuesday declined to reconsider his ruling that bars the Trump administration from issuing offshore drilling permits without first conducting environmental review, rejecting an oil company’s request for review.
Read moreCommission Adopts Environmental Justice Guidelines
Low-income communities and people of color will enjoy fuller access to California’s beaches thanks to the California Coastal Commission’s adoption of an environmental justice policy Friday that will provide clear guidelines for development projects along the Pacific Coast.
Read moreCalifornia Beach Watchdog Touts Public Access Enforcement Tool
No parking signs placed strategically by Santa Cruz residents to cordon off public parking for their own use have come down. In Malibu, a chain link fence that runs from a sprawling mansion down into the ocean past the mean high tide line has been removed, restoring access to picturesque portion of Portuguese Bend. In San Diego, an outdoor shower that cut off public access to a beach was demolished.
Read moreCalifornia Intent on Public Access for Beach in Ritzy Enclave
In no uncertain terms, members of the California Coastal Commissioner put property owners in a wealthy enclave north of Los Angeles on notice that their days of blocking the public from accessing an 8-mile stretch of pristine coast will soon be over.
Read moreCoastal Commission Settles 33-Year Fight Over Lagoon Trail
The California Coastal Commission got a reprieve from its typically hotly contested enforcement of the Coastal Act by homeowners Wednesday when it amicably settled a 33-year dispute over a lagoon access trail in Carlsbad, California.
Read moreAppeals Court Sides With Coastal Commission on Beach Hotel Project
A state appeals court has upheld the California Coastal Commission’s decision to require affordable accommodations in connection to a proposed 175-room hotel on the San Diego Bay.
Read moreCalifornia Coastal Commission Eyes Beefing Up Beach Access for All
With hundreds of miles of picturesque and accessible coastline, California has an abundance of beaches for all of its 39 million residents plus tourists to enjoy. But while the state’s constitution guarantees a public right of beach access and there are over 1,000 access points statewide, low-income and minority communities have long struggled to connect with the Golden State’s majestic shoreline.
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