Coastal Commission Evicts Families

Lloyd Billingsley:

Staff of the California Coastal Commission (CCC) had sought to limit the time residents of Lawson’s Landing, a beach resort in Marin County, could stay in their own trailer homes, which they would be forced to rent when not occupied. That scheme did not sit well with the trailer owners, who were “beyond furious” according to one attendee at the CCC’s Wednesday meeting in San Rafael, and wore T-shirts emblazoned with the group’s name, “Save Lawson’s Landing.” Now the Commission is imposing a different plan.

The CCC has ordered some 200 of the trailer homes to get off the property entirely. It gives the owners until 2017 to vacate, after which the spaces will be reserved for recreational vehicles. Lawson’s Landing will secure a formal permit but will suffer financially from loss of the trailer homes and other restrictions. A coastal property owner present at the meeting told CalWatchDog.com that “repeatedly the CCC staff said that they were not interested in the economics of the Lawsons’ business. They didn’t care if they shut them down.  Basically, not their problem was the take-home message.”

The California Coastal Commission is an unelected body dating from 1972 that manages to combine Stalinist regulation with Mafia-style corruption. During the 1990s, Coastal Commissioner Mark Nathanson served prison time for a bribery conviction. Peter Douglas, an anti-property-rights zealot, has run the Commission since 1985. At a recent Sacramento conference, Douglas and CCC supporters appealed for more money, more staff and more power, including the ability to bypass the courts and impose fines directly.

July 19, 2011