Capital Weekly profiles Coastal Commission director

As one of its creators and as executive director of the Coastal Commission since 1985, Peter Douglas he has been protecting the coast for decades, according to a very good profile in Capital Weekly.

Douglas’ attitude has made him many enemies, especially among property-rights advocacy groups. Ron Zumbrun, who founded the Pacific Legal Foundation and now heads a private firm, lost a long legal battle year that reached to the state Supreme Court. Zumbrun challenged the constitutionality of the commission’s structure, and said Douglas was a dictator who pushed his own ideas of what was right for the coast.

"He has an extreme goal for protecting the coast," Zumbrun said. "He does not really recognize the right to own and use private property. He’s from a different philosophy."

But even most of Douglas’ enemies admire him for his independence and determination. A former Coastal Commission member who asked not to be identified said, "[Douglas] is somebody who really believes in what he does. He’s not a hired gun. The downside of that is he is an ideologue, an extremist who has allowed his ideology to trump everything else, including logic."