ELR Citation: ELR 20122
No(s). B187666 (Cal. App. 2d Dist. May 25, 2007)

The court held that the California Coastal Commission unlawfully denied a permit to a company to maintain gates and no trespassing signs on its property. Inherent in one's ownership of real property is the right to exclude uninvited visitors. In prohibiting the company from excluding the public from its property on the theory that the "potential exists to establish prescriptive rights for public use," the commission, in effect, decreed the existence of such rights. The commission's finding, premised on the existence of "potential" prescriptive rights, was speculative. Hence, a lower court properly overturned the denial of the permit.