The California Supreme Court has ruled that the state Coastal Commission doesn’t have the right to block the construction of a small housing development in Los Osos.
In 2019, Shear Development Co. received a permit from San Luis Obispo County to build three single-family homes in Los Osos.
The California Coastal Commission appealed the decision and tried to revoke the permit.
“The core question here was whether the commission was able to exercise oversight over a permit issued by San Luis Obispo County,” said Jeremy Talcott, an attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation who represented the developer in their lawsuit. “ We believed the Commission was unlawfully expanding its power.”
A superior court and appellate court both previously sided with the Coastal Commission.
However this week, the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the developer, overturning both of those previous decisions.
Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero rejected the Commission’s argument for why it should have the authority to appeal the permit.
In her opinion, Guerrero wrote that the housing lots aren’t inside of a “Sensitive Coastal Resource Area”, a designation that would have triggered the Commission’s appellate jurisdiction to appeal the permit.
SLO County Supervisor Bruce Gibson says he agreed with the court’s decision because he thinks the lawsuit isn’t about the merits of the permit.
“ I think in this case, the Coastal Commission did not have the authority to appeal the project, even though I agreed with their decision to deny [the permit],” Gibson said.
Gibson told KCBX that he voted against the permit in 2019 because he was concerned the homes couldn’t be connected to Los Osos’ sewer system.
The California Supreme Court also rejected the Coastal Commission’s argument that it had authority to appeal because the site had multiple “principal permitted uses.”
