The latest legal news in short bursts: Coastal Commission can't allow seawalls on projects built after 1976, ED1 revisions don't apply prospectively, and La Cañada Flintridge housing element appeal is moot.

Reversing a trial judge, an appellate court ruled that a seawall can be built to protect an apartment complex built in 1972 -- but not an adjacent condo building built in 1984, eight years after the Coastal Act was passed.

Four lots in Los Osos were already on local water and sewer. San Luis Obispo County approved creating three new lots that already had sewer laterals and water meters. But the Coastal Commission said no and, in an unpublished ruling, an appellate court has agreed. 

You'd think the ADU wars would be over. But in recent court decisions, Malibu lost an attempt to subject an ADU to a coastal development permit, while Coronado succeeded in limiting the combined size of an ADU and the adjacent house.

Manhattan Beach tried to retrofit an old ordinance to cover short-term rentals without Coastal Commission approval. It didn't work.

Appellate court rejects all of a Malibu property owners arguments in dispute over a gate and structure located on a Coastal Conservancy easement.

The property owners undertook a major renovation -- apparently beyond what the Coastal Development Permit allowed -- with city permits but without out telling the Coastal Commission.

Appellate court says landowners didn't provide any compelling reason for the Coastal Commission not to prohibit them.

Both appellate court and Coastal Commission side with city on conversion of Super 8  motel.

But agency wins most other points in three appellate cases.