Bulldozers Demolish Front Yard Golf Course in Pebbble Beach

[Bob_Huntley]

See:

www.carmelpinecone.com

Article starts on the Front Page.

It took the California Coastal Commission 18 years  to find that the property was not in compliance with the original permitting. This in spite of well over a million visitors  having seen it person and many more from newspaper, magazine articles and TV broadcasts. This is on one of the most beautiful coastal sites in the State and not one bureaucrat, who is paid handsomely by the State, failed to find this "gross irregularity."

The original builder/owner might well have some problems of disclosure should the curent occupant get testy. Perhaps Sy could comment.  


Bob

[RJ_Daley]

What a pity!

Among the idiotic aspects of this is the comparison of the Feduniak's home with a few just down the road from them in terms of aesthetically pleasing and fitting into the theme of the neighborhood.  Presumably, those homes that are in compliance look crappy compared to this home.  It seems to me that continuing the golf theme that is historically and readily the biggest identifiable trait and aesthetic of the pennisula (golf), should be a large consideration of a variance that should be granted.  Not to mention the lunacy of this manicured for golf turf is non-native, but there are acres of the stuff all around the pennisula.  18 years and nothing is brought up, ought to have some sort of similar concept to the rationale to adverse possession, in spirit. 

http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&hl=en&ll=36.58503,-121.964813&spn=0,0.003066&z=19&layer=c&cbll=36.58509,-121.964726&panoid=98VeCoaZR63Hediwf9sRSg&cbp=12,93.89,,0,2.93

If the coastal commission could show some negative real  impact to the actual environment that promotes harmful invasive species of plants or fauna, one could give it more credibility.  But, no mention of negative environmental impact for the 18 prior years was mentioned in the article.

As far as possible implications many may make that this is a surrogate example of rt wing - left wing, government meddling oppression vs individual freedoms, I'm only prepared to agree this is extreme green environmentalist nonsense and score one for the individual freedom and property rights folks.  I'd have been happy to contribute a few bucks to their legal defense fund, not that they seem to need it.  In my view they did fight the good fight, up until they had to relent for obvious practicality reasons. 

[John Kavanaugh]

This is great news for people who respect and play by the rules. They might have well as built a ferris wheel since they too seem to be an ocean staple.

[JC Jones]

Why didn't they know about the easement when they purchased the property? 

If I'm dropping $13mm on a house, I'm probably going to run a title search.

[John Kavanaugh]

The house will be worth more without the course.

[Bill_Yates]

John,
Ferris Wheel?

If you really believe that, you should think it awful that the Coastal Commission wasn't around when Dr Mackenzie built the entire fairground next door.  Those same non-native plants he used could have ruined the peninsula.

[John Kavanaugh]

There are ferris wheels along the coast and there are golf courses.  I don't see the difference as long as it is a permitted use. I see a common good in the permitting process.

[Bob_Huntley]

John,

I suggest you re-read the article. The current holder did not build the three-holer but Bert Bonnano, the developer and first occupant did.

JC,

I could be wrong but easements concern lot lines etc., this should have been caught by Monterey County's Planning Department prior to signing off on the project.

Bob

[Bob_Huntley]

There are ferris wheels along the coast and there are golf courses.  I don't see the difference as long as it is a permitted use. I see a common good in the permitting process.

John,

John,

You mid-Westerners are used to a much more lenient attitude to what you can do on your own property compared to some counties in California.

Any construction in Monterey has to have certain amount of fluorescent lighting, water saving shower heads, and a host of other conditions. Should you have a large, diseased oak on your property that could be dangerous to life and limb, you can only lop off a third of it per year, to hell with your problem.

The Coastal Commission can and does claim that they can have the right to pass judgement as far inland as 1000 yards from mean high tide; not too much coastline there....

Bob   

[Dick Kirkpatrick]

I know a lot of people who read this won't know what I mean, but this decision is nothing compared to the authority that the Niagara Escarpment Commission has here in Ontario, Canada.
They are so insane that they will deny permits based on the colour (Canadian spelling) of the patio stones or the roof shingles or tiles.
They will deny permits if the swimming pool is out of scale compared to Lake Ontario. Tlhink about that one.

In regard to the non native plants on the estate, considering that ALL grasses are native to the Savanna in Africa and therefore any grass not native to CA is an oxymoron.
There are NO native grasses in the USA according to what I have been taught.

[Bob_Huntley]

I know a lot of people who read this won't know what I mean, but this decision is nothing compared to the authority that the Niagara Escarpment Commission has here in Ontario, Canada.
They are so insane that they will deny permits based on the colour (Canadian spelling) of the patio stones or the roof shingles or tiles.
They will deny permits if the swimming pool is out of scale compared to Lake Ontario. Tlhink about that one.

In regard to the non native plants on the estate, considering that ALL grasses are native to the Savanna in Africa and therefore any grass not native to CA is an oxymoron.
There are NO native grasses in the USA according to what I have been taught.

Dick,

As much as I want to believe you, I am sure that the grasses that provided sustenance to the Prarie Indian Tribes were there for a millenium without an import from Africa.

Bob

[Bob_Huntley]

John K,

More grist for home owners rights.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/05/28/2333197/church-fined-for-improper-tree.html


Bob

[Adam Clayman]

Jk. Where is the common good in increasing government bureaucracies? The current status, crowds out all of the entrepreneurial spirit, ultimately stifling growth, and more importantly, erodes our freedoms. That's not a common good, is it? There's no such thing as common good. It's code for spend spend spend. All entitlement, no skin in the game, big ego commissioners, where whim, of some overly-sensitive, likely dis-functional, neurotic wife of an inside "playa" is all that guides them. 

[Jim_Kennedy]

Bob,
There are hundreds of species of grass that are native to North America.

In general:
There are also nearly 600 species of invasive plants in California, and 375 of them are found in Monterey County.

[Bob_Huntley]

Bob,
There are hundreds of species of grass that are native to North America.

In general:
There are also nearly 600 species of invasive plants in California, and 375 of them are found in Monterey County.

Jim,

Thanks for that.

Bob

[Adam Clayman]

How many of those invasive plants were brought there by the military? Ice Plant is the one that I'm aware of. Ironic, how the government puts itself above the law.

[paul cowley]

Absolute travesty...I shudder to think where we are going.

[Jeff Taylor]

This should answer any questions about who is in charge.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Bob,

Good to see you posting.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

You're very familiar with the CCC and their previous rulings, so, this shouldn't come as a total surprise for you.

[paul cowley]

Bob...I second Patricks motion that it's good to see you posting!

Still have two 'potentials' in your neighborhood, but nothings definate these days. Gt's on hold.

All the best.

[Tony Ristola]

I recall seeing that place and thinking how great it would be to knock some pitch shots around and hit some putts in the early morning and evening.

It fit with its neighbor, though they could have been a wee bit more creative with the bunkering Then perhaps, with a bit better job at camouflage, nobody would have noticed.

.

[Adrian_Stiff]

They are so insane that they will deny permits based on the colour (Canadian spelling) of the patio stones or the roof shingles or tiles.

[/quote] Thats standard in the UK and pretty much acknowledged as the way to go.

[RJ_Daley]

"Skin in the game" and "entitlement" are just the new buzz phrases introduced by the faux grass roots corporatists propagandists, and flogged in every forum and media outlet they can repeat the devisive and elitist mantra.

Adam, while I agree these are regulations gone too far, and applied in such an obvious arbitrary and capricious way after the fact and so many years down the road from where zoning should have been enforced; I hardly think this is about skin in the game or entitlement.  'Skin in the game' is about the anger button propagandists are using to make those that pay taxes because they have enough financial ability and income to do so, channel anger at those that don't.  'Entitlement' is code for benefits, minimum benefits conferred to people by their government as basic minimum security.

You and I may not like it that the CCC has become a commission that has gone too far, but it isn't entitlement, and it isn't skin in the game, it is merely the test of the CCCs existence and application of the authority given to them by the government of the people, whether that body still has the consensus of the people to ply its rules.  There is a process to change the commission's authority, and it could be that even some of the neighbors of this property in question have complained, either because of 'me too' wanting variances, or just don't like the mini-course, knowing it is currently and has been in the past, prohibited and slipped through.  Those that pray the mantra of skin in the game and entitlement, are also often the first ones to rely on things like zoning prohibitions and lobbying their powerful commissions to apply NIMBY in property rights and values, and place barriers to entry competition in business to protect cartel monopolies by lobbying government commissions.

Administrative law, regulation and permitting are a tangled web, but we can't seem to live with it, or without it. So we fight over where the boundaries of public good should be.

I can't wait until next year, and the new buzz words and phrases come out, I'm sick to the point of puking over 'skin in the game' and 'entitlements' to interject in every dispute and public policy question, even if it doesn't apply.

[Jim_Kennedy]

The CCC won it's case, but let's be realistic, if they were so all-powerful it wouldn't have taken a decade for them to see this little course get ripped up.

Like it or not (I don't like seeing a golf course destroyed), the system protected  both sides until the final legal decision was arrived at.

[Lou_Duran]

Ouch!  How a few simple words can so easily touch a nerve and illicit a complete rhetorical dump.  Karl Rove.  Koch Brothers.  Bushhhhhhh.  Crap is getting very tiresome; and stale too.

Some people have it all figured out.  They are smarter, better motivated; they just know what is fair and just.  We should just give them our wallets and let them run things.  Something about a social contract whose signators are only identified in the beautiful minds of those who have our best interests, the common good, guiding their every effort.

Thomas Sowell writes about these good folks in his book "The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy"

George Carlin talked about them-    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eScDfYzMEEw

A man of many interests, he also had a few things to say that will please some of the same he destroys above and many on the left.  Vulgar, but very funny.    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbSRCjG-VLk&feature=related