CA - Stinson Beach house approved despite sea level concerns

Following a 90-minute public hearing on Tuesday, the supervisors unanimously denied an appeal of the county Planning Commission’s approval of the project, which calls for the building of a one-story, 1,296-square-foot home and a new septic system at 21 Calle Del Onda. The project will be built on a 15,200-square-foot, shorefront lot within a coastal dune area.

Elizabeth Brekhus, an attorney representing the appellants, owners of two nearby properties, said the decision flounts a recent county assessment of sea level rise risk in the area. She said she plans to appeal the supervisors’ approval of the project to the Coastal Commission, which could deny the project.

“It envisions a very doomsday scenario out there,” Brekhus said. “If it’s going to guide our decision making, then we need to be serious about limiting development.”

Brekhus said that during the January storms 20 Stinson Beach houses suffered damage and six homes had their septic systems fail.

In his closing remarks, Supervisor Dennis Rodoni said, “I have general concerns related to this process and the precedent we’re setting here. Some of our county policies are in direct conflict with this application.”

Nevertheless, he and the other supervisors ultimately voted to deny the appeal. Supervisors were facing the prospect that if they denied the project that the property owner, Brian Johnson, would sue claiming the county had effectively taken his property.

“From the very beginning of this project, we have understood that it would face a takings analysis,” said Steve Kinsey, a former Marin County supervisor, who represented Johnson as a consultant.

Under U.S. constitutional law, a regulatory taking occurs when governmental rules limit the use of private property to such a degree that the landowner is effectively deprived of all economically reasonable use or value of the property. Under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, governments are required to pay just compensation for such takings.

Len Rifkind, a lawyer representing Johnson, said county staff estimated the project’s value at about $3.5 million.

“I’m just asking for fairness,” said Johnson, whose family purchased the property in the 1930s.

A smaller house on the property, under 600 square feet in size, was destroyed by a fire.

Kinsey said, “This is the last shoreline lot in Stinson Beach. It’s 80 feet remaining of 11,000 feet that were all dunes. How can we treat this one 80-foot segment of the shoreline so differently?”

In her closing remarks Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters said, “I consider this project an infill development project. It was owned by a family for a very long time that had a reasonable expectation to be able to rebuild a home that burned.”

The county’s local coastal program prohibits development within coastal dunes, which are considered to be environmentally sensitive habitat areas (ESHAs). According to the county’s environmental review of the project, the building site contains 1,573 square feet of ESHA.

In 2021, however, the county adopted amendments to its local coastal program (LCP), one of which allows it to approve projects that fail to comply with the LCP if necessary to avoid a taking.

That amendment requires that takings exceptions be as consistent as possible with all applicable policies and propose the minimum amount of development necessary to avoid a taking as determined through an evaluation.

Brekhus asserted that standard has not been met because Johnson could build a smaller house and still recoup his investment in the property. Deputy County Counsel Brandon Halter disagreed.

“There is a basis to conclude the project does minimally conflict with those policies,” Halter said.