This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, June 29th, 2022.

I'm Caleb Brown.

If you don't live in California, you might not know about the California Coastal Commission,

but that agency's lack of oversight gives

it tremendous power. Oliver Dunford is an attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation.

Last month in Chicago we discussed his client's fight for the right to modify his own home

to accommodate his disability.

What is within the purview of the California Coastal Commission?

The Coastal Commission is given broad jurisdiction to protect the coastal lands within the state of California.

But, and the authority is to oversee development on the coastal lands and to oversee

what local jurisdictions do in terms of how those local jurisdictions approve permits for development and anything having to do with it's about a hundred yards or so off the coast.

It's all under their jurisdiction. All right. 100 yards or so off the coast.

It's all under their jurisdiction.

All right, so it seems reasonable

that you would want to protect the coastline.

California is a beautiful state and you know

coastlines move over time so what's wrong with the fact that we you they have

this agency you're right as a matter, the state does have an obligation, in fact, to protect the public coast. A lot of it is public land.

So it is a reasonable area for the government to be involved in. The problem

is there's no oversight of the Commission. It is a law unto itself. It is given broad powers

by the legislature, by the laws of California, but it is continuously trying to expand that jurisdiction, take control over more and more property, involve itself more and more in local decisions, to the

extent that they are in many ways violating the laws that they are supposed to enforce. All right, so what's the latest? the California, they own property on the coast. They received a permit from the county to

...