Supreme Court Ruling Allows Housing Construction in Los Osos to Continue
LOS OSOS, Calif. (KEYT) - Some residential developments in Los Osos will finally be able to proceed.
This comes after nearly a decade of legal battles with the California Coastal Commission.
“The commission has for decades, continually pushed outwards its exercise of jurisdiction,” says Jeremy Talcott, an attorney At Pacific Legal Foundation. “And this really was a resounding rebuke by the California Supreme Court to put them back within their jurisdictional limits.”
An eight-house development project started in 2003 by Shear Development Company, LLC stalled when the Commission denied its last three property permits in 2017.
“What really irks me is that they didn't take the time to do their due diligence on this,” says Tim Shea, lead contractor at Shear Development. “Coastal Commission looked at it in about a minute. They made their decision and said no.”
After the development permits were fully approved by the County Of San Luis Obispo, the Coastal Commission inserted itself and denied the permits, claiming the lots were in environmentally sensitive habitat areas.
“Under the Coastal Act, there is a role for the state to play,” says Talcott. “The state has the ability to certify any local coastal program amendments, and they did that. And so, once those were certified by the Commission, that does vest a lot of permitting authority back into the local government.”
The State Supreme Court’s ruling last week was in Shear Development’s favor.
“The California Supreme Court, pretty resoundingly found in favor of Shear Development and said, on remand, when this gets sent back down, you, Commission, need to find that you never had jurisdiction at all, and you never should have been involved,” says Talcott.
The State Supreme Court says the California Coastal Commission must allow the County their approvals of projects that conform to their Local Coastal Program.
And the Coastal Commission says in a statement:
"After initial review, we don't believe this decision has significant implications for the Commission’s program or authority. It has little impact on the Shear Development project as the County has since resolved the habitat, sewage and drinking water issues that initially raised concerns with our agency."
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