Steven Greenhut: Abusive Coastal Agency Demands Even More Power

The title of the Coastal Society’s 1998
conference, which featured a speech by the father of the California
Coastal Commission, Peter Douglas, is relevant to a debate
that may soon come back to the Capitol, writes Steven Greenhut. At
the “Minding the Coast: It’s Everyone’s Business” event, Douglas
detailed his vision for coastal protection. The commission is loved
by environmentalists and loathed by many property owners as
Californians still wrestle with the same question: What does it
mean for everyone to mind the coast? Legislators will weigh in this
year if they revisit a bill that would give the commission vastly
expanded powers – namely, the right to impose fines without first
taking property owners to court.

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