Coastal Landowner Wins Building Case

Someday, Dennis Schneider might be able to enjoy a drop-dead view from his yet-to-be-built dream home on a Central Coast cliff-top perched above the ocean.

At the same time, kayakers, surfers and all the ships at sea will have a drop-dead view of Schneider’s 10,000-square-foot mansion -- whether they want it or not.

Less-than-pleasing views for passing sailors are no grounds for the California Coastal Commission this week to restrict seaside development, a state appeals court ruled Wednesday.

“We believe that it is unreasonable to assume that the Legislature has ever sought to protect the occasional boater’s views of the coastline at the expense of a coastal landowner,” the 2nd District Court of Appeal wrote in a unanimous opinion.

The ruling could affect stretches of California shoreline that are still relatively undeveloped, particularly along the Central Coast and in Northern California.

An attorney for Schneider, a San Luis Obispo engineer, cast the decision Thursday as a victory for property owners seeking to exercise their rights and a defeat for Coastal Commission officials trying to arbitrarily clamp down on development.

“The commission was attempting an outrageous power grab that would have put projects up and down the coast in jeopardy based on nothing more than the arbitrary aesthetic whims of commission staffers and members,” said J. David Breemer, an attorney with the property-rights oriented Pacific Legal Foundation.

Sara Wan, a Malibu environmental advocate and a 10-year member of the Coastal Commission, called the ruling “unfortunate.”

“It’s not in the interests of the general public,” Wan said. “The coast has to be enjoyed from both the land and the sea.”

The case started in 2000, after San Luis Obispo County approved Schneider’s plan for a home, a barn and an access road that stretched more than a mile from Highway 1 across his 40-acre property.

Seeking to protect the rugged Harmony Coast north of Cayucos, the Coastal Commission cut the size of the project by more than half. To minimize views of the house from the ocean, it ordered Schneider to build on a piece of his property less exposed to the sea -- but one where the prospect of cascading boulders and erosion posed “significant geological hazards,” according to the court.

The commission “argued that the enjoyment of uncluttered views from the ocean was a public resource,” according to the appellate decision. State law allows the commission to bar developments that block views of the ocean but is silent on views from the ocean, according to the appeals court decision.

When Schneider sued, San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Roger Picquet sided with the commission. Though praising Schneider’s project as “beautifully designed,” Picquet wrote in his decision that “the beauty of a sunrise from a vantage point offshore is afforded the same protection as a sunset seen from land.”

In a decision issued Wednesday, the Ventura-based appeals court disagreed, saying that “this expansive reading of the statute stretches the fabric too thin.”

Schneider said he was elated by the ruling on his project, which he first presented to county planners in 1997.

He said the issue of views from the ocean was puzzling, partly because there’s no beach nearby, the closest harbor is 15 miles away in Morro Bay and the seas at the base of his bluff are so rough that he has seen fewer than 10 boaters go by in the dozen years he has owned the property.

“It’s just not a heavily trafficked area,” he said.

But the Coastal Commission’s Wan asked why that should be relevant.

“I don’t know why the importance of views should be based on how many people are able to see them,” she said. “Are they important in densely populated areas, but not in rural areas?”