Life in the people's republic of California

SLO Leaks is the blog of Rob and Judi McCarthy and their four year attempt to get a building permit for a house in San Luis Obispo County, California. Rob's family has lived in this area since 1906. Here is one post -- from December 29th, 2012:

It�s official � the Coastal Commission staff has screwed me
It took me a couple of days and several hours of meeting with Dave Watson (my planner), Lenny Grant, and Robert Malone (the architects) to figure out just exactly how screwed I am by the California Coastal Commission�s staff report on the appeal of my Minor Use Permit to build my house at Cave Landing.

The entire report is 276 pages long. You can read it here (if you are crazy and have no life). Of course I carefully read it, and below is the summary:

The staff is recommending that the full Coastal Commission approve my house but with �Special Conditions�. Here are the ways the Coastal Commission staff has screwed me over with the �Special Conditions�:

1. I can not use CSA-12 water at all, but I have to continue to pay $6,000 a year for forever to CSA-12 for the water that the Coastal Commission won�t let me use.

2. I have to hide my house from the Cave Landing dirt parking lot by digging down 16 ft below grade and moving 260,000 cubic yards of dirt to form berms.

3. My house has to be dramatically reduced in size EVEN THOUGH NO ONE CAN SEE IT! I don�t know how small my house has to be because that special condition is vaguely written.

4. I have to design my house to have a �rural agricultural theme� as defined by the Coastal Commission staff EVEN THOUGH NO ONE CAN SEE IT! (Remember, my house isn�t even in a rural area � it is in an urban or suburban area as defined by the LCP.)

5. I have to remove all the existing fences on my property and I can never obstruct anyone from trespassing on my property EVER! And what am I supposed to do with my two dogs? I can�t let them out without having a fence because they will run away.

6. The Coastal Commission staff has decided that my property contains public paths and I must maintain them and carry insurance for any injuries suffered by the trespassers while they are on my property for forever.

7. I must only plant native California plants in my yard. If I plant a zucchini the Coastal Commission can have me thrown into jail and fined up to $15,000 per day.

I cannot build my house under these conditions � which the Coastal Commission staff knows. So unless the full Coastal Commission overrules their own staff (which is very unlikely), I will spend the next few years in the California Court system � which the Coastal Commission staff knows. And, by the way, the Coastal Commission does not pay out of their budget any legal costs. All legal costs caused by the Coastal Commission have to be paid by the California State Attorney General�s office. So the Coastal Commission has a blank check to cover their costs, and any delays caused by lawsuits are to the Coastal Commission�s advantage.

The Coastal Commission staff has no legal ability to impose these conditions on me. There have been numerous legal cases since the creation of the Coastal Commission in 1976 that clearly prevent these sort of special conditions. (See Nolland v. California Coastal Commission, or Dolan v. City of Tigard) But that hasn�t stopped the Coastal Commission from continuing to bully property owners around by imposing illegal special conditions like they are doing to me.

So the brokest state of the brokest county in the history of the world has an unlimited budget to cover the legal costs of an out of control state agency that is forcing me to build on my property a small house without any fence, designed to look the way the state agency wants, with only the plants the state agency wants in my yard, using well water in a community water district, and I must allow anyone to trespass at any time. And it has taken this out of control state agency 3 years to decide this.

Mr. McCarthy is a dot.com millionaire and has this to say in another post -- from October 11, 2011:

Bankrupt California
At the company I run we had to make a decision today. Should we invest in more property in California for more office space for more employees, or should we lease space in Texas and hire more employees there?

After phrasing the situation in that way we were able to quickly decide that relocating that part of our business to Texas was, without a doubt, the best choice. So we are looking to hire 3 or 4 sales people, and 3 or 4 developers, to work in downtown Austin, Texas. A couple of the California employees will move to Texas to run the office. But we no longer want to invest in California if we have other choices. And a large part of the reason my company is investing outside of California is because of my experience in trying to get a building permit for my house at Cave Landing.

I know a lot of builders out here and from time to time, I hear them grouse about having to deal with our County Planning Department. They don't know how good they have it! My only concern is that California is still considered to be the gold standard for environmental regulations and their actions are copied by other planning departments. This needs to be nipped in the bud.