Ocean Harbor House Homeowners Ass'n v. California Coastal Commission

Statement of the Case

Plaintiff Ocean Harbor House Homeowners Association (Homeowners) sought a coastal development permit from defendant California Coastal Commission (the Commission) to build a seawall to protect their condominium complex from erosion that threatened its structural integrity. The Commission granted the permit but as a condition required Homeowners to pay a fee to mitigate the loss of an acre of beach, the fee to be used toward the purchase of beach property elsewhere. Homeowners challenged the fee by petition for a writ of administrative mandate (Code Civ. Proc., § 1094.5), but the trial court denied the writ. Homeowners now appeals from the judgment. It claims that (1) the fee is an unconstitutional taking because there is no nexus or rough proportionality between it and the projected impact of the seawall; (2) the Commission lacked statutory authority to impose the fee; (3) the fee is not supported by substantial evidence; and (4) the Commission arbitrarily increased the amount of the fee.

We find no merit to these claims and affirm the judgment.

The Administrative Proceedings

Ocean Harbor House is a 172-unit, multibuilding condominium complex on…