Rennett Stowe/flickrProperty rights can still trump the desires of professional meddlers in California.

Steven Greenhut writes:

During a 1997 speech to the American Planning Association in Monterey, Peter Douglas, the longtime executive director of the California Coastal Commission and main author of the 1972 initiative that created it, argued that private property rights were on a collision course with the environmental movement.

He warned of “the clear and present threat to the health and well-being of the public flowing from the property rights debate” and expressed concern “about the direction in which the debate is being driven by the courts.” Douglas gave a tongue lashing to the Pacific Legal Foundation, a Sacramento-based group that litigates on behalf of property owners fighting against government agencies.

Douglas died four years ago, but the agency he guided for several decades continues to implement his—and the ensuing 1976 coastal act’s—vision in an oft-times heavy-handed manner. The agency has broad powers to control land use along California’s 1,100-mile coastline. If he were alive today, Douglas would be appalled at an Orange County court ruling late last month in a San Clemente case.

Those of us who believe in limited and accountable government, and who bristle at the thought of bureaucrats shaking down property owners for unfair concessions, should celebrate. Douglas was right in this much, however: The courts have found constitutional property protections sometimes are at odds with the goals of environmentalists. Even sweeter: The winning property owners were represented by the same group he chided.

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