It has been called the single most powerful land-use authority in the United States due to its purview over vast environmental assets and extremely valuable real estate.

[13] However legislation attached to the state budget in the summer of 2014[14] finally granted the authority to impose fines on violators of public-access which could apply to about a third of the backlog of over 2,000 unresolved enforcement cases.

[19] The Local Coastal Program (LCP) for a run-down gateway to Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard is designated for visitor-serving commercial uses and harbor-related uses that support recreational boating and fishing.

[20] The Commission recommended cities implement managed retreat philosophies allowing oceans to naturally erode developments thereby nourishing beaches with reclaimed sand made of disintegrated former properties.

[24] The Commission appealed the ruling, and observers have stated that the final result of this litigation will have far-reaching consequences on the future of California's coast.

[24] One proposal to remedy this situation and allow managed retreat was a bill which would have created a state fund used to purchase threatened properties from homeowners, then rent them back to the resident to live in until it is no longer safe to do so.

[27] Jerry Brown, in his first term as governor, signed the California Coastal Act into law, but two years later, became frustrated with the commission and called them "bureaucratic thugs.

"[28] Peter M. Douglas helped write the act in addition to Proposition 20 and was subsequently employed as the Executive Director of the Coastal Commission for 26 years.

"[36] The Supreme Court of the United States ruled in the 1987 case of Nollan v. California Coastal Commission that a requirement by the agency was a taking in violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.

The Coastal Commission had asserted that the public-easement condition was imposed to promote the legitimate state interest of diminishing the "blockage of the view of the ocean" caused by construction of the larger house.

The court, in a narrow decision, ruled that an "essential nexus" must exist between the legitimate state interest and the permit condition imposed by government, otherwise the building restriction "is not a valid regulation of land use but an out-and-out plan of extortion.

Granite Rock's approved Forest Service permit to excavate pharmaceutical limestone expired by the time the case was decided.

[39][40][41][42] Proponents say that the Commission has protected open space, views, habitats, endangered species, and public coastal access, and therefore argue that it should be given even greater authority to control housing projects within its jurisdiction.

And in many cases that extends down to the smallest details imaginable, like what color you paint your houses, what kind of light bulbs you can use in certain places.

"[5] The agency is tasked with protection of coastal resources, including shoreline public access and recreation, lower cost visitor accommodations, terrestrial and marine habitat protection, visual resources, landform alteration, agricultural lands, commercial fisheries, industrial uses, water quality, offshore oil and gas development, transportation, development design, power plants, ports, and public works.

[13] However legislation attached to the state budget in the summer of 2014[46] finally granted the authority to impose fines on violators of public-access which could apply to about a third of the backlog of over 2,000 unresolved enforcement cases.

"We as an agency have a mandate to encourage public access on the California coast and that means doing everything we can to ensure people can actually afford to stay there," said Dayna Bochco, who chairs the commission.

[52] In 2018, a high-profile case was resolved without litigation: at tech billionaire Sean Parker's 2013 wedding in Big Sur, where extensive staging was installed in an ecologically sensitive area without a proper permit, Parker cooperated with the Commission and created a mobile app named YourCoast to help visitors discover 1500 access points to beaches as well as report violations.

[53][54] The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Half Moon Bay was ordered to pay $1.6 million in penalties for failing to provide public access to its nearby beaches in 2019.

[56] In 2019, during the process of replacing wooden power poles with steel poles to reduce wildfire risk, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) graded fire roads and created new roads on Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Areas in Topanga State Park which destroyed almost 200 endangered Braunton's milkvetch plants on 9 acres (3.6 ha)(10% of those plants in the area).

[57][58] In the 1980s, the commission denied the Remmenga family's petition to build a home 1 mi (1.6 km) from the beach in Hollister Ranch unless the public were allowed access through their property.

[61] He proposed building 225,000 sq ft (20,900 m2) of office space on the property to help fund homes that would also be built to house 50 disabled people.

[11] In agreeing to end lawsuits brought by the state of California, the California Parks and Recreation Commission, the Native American Heritage Commission and the Save San Onofre Coalition, Orange County tollway officials withdrew their approval in 2016 and agreed in a legal settlement to preserve San Onofre State Beach.

[68] In 2016, the commission denied a controversial proposal for 895 homes, a hotel, and shops from being built on an Orange County oil field overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

[70][71][72] In 2020, the commission delayed construction of a two-story Newport Beach office building and garage with space for two tenants because neighbors objected to the project's potential effect on traffic, noise, light, and views.[73][where?]

Commission district supervisor Ryan Maroney said the mass and scale of a building would impact the "coastal resources" of views, community character and aesthetics.

CCC argued that the bus/carpool lanes "would cause substantial impacts to coastal resources" and that the proposal was part of an "old paradigm of needing to constantly build 'new and more.

'"[84] In 2005, the commission found Dennis Schneider's proposed 10,000 sq ft (930 m2) home in San Luis Obispo to be inconsistent with the California Coastal Act.

While commission Executive Director Peter M. Douglas said "the view of pastoral areas from the sea to the land without human structures intervening is very important," the California 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled in a unanimous 2006 opinion: "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.

[94][95] In 2020, a commission investigation found the city of Long Beach guilty of pruning palm trees that contained more than one Heron bird nest.