Private Property Rights......in America?

What could be better than beachfront property in California? Well nothing, most people will say. But what happens when your property isn't really,,,,,,,well,,,,your property? Oh, you have a deed and maybe a mortgage, but then you discover that maybe it's not all yours.

George and Sharlee McNamee have a beautiful home, an ocean view and a bounty of children and grandchildren who invade their house every weekend. The breeze is fresh, the view is stunning and retired life in Corona Del Mar, Calif., is good.

But the McNamees wake up every morning fighting for their rights. In this case, the freedom to use a picnic table, shed and shower in their own backyard.

How is that you say?

For the last decade, the McNamees' backyard has been a battlefield. The retired couple has spent $250,000 in legal fees protecting amenities worth little more than $100.

Click here to see photos of the McNamees' backyard battle.


For the last decade, George and Sharlee McNamee have been locked in legal battle with California regulators over the couple's right to build improvements on their own property, which abuts a coastal zone in California.

Those numbers are shocking, but not to those who know the regulatory reach and zeal of the California Coastal Commission, which claims that items in the couple's backyard -- the picnic table, a thatched palapa, a shower and barbecue -- are illegal. Failure to remove them results in a fine -- and that fine is $6,000 per day.

"It doesn't matter if you've built something ugly or if you have built something lovely. If you have built something in the coastal zone without getting a permit either from your local government or the commission, you've broken the law," says Sara Christie, the Coastal Commission's legislative director. Read it all here.

So who is the Coastal Commission? Who gave them such powerful control?

Check around in your own neighborhood, you may have something similar.

Of course the prime argument for all this is "retention of property values". Okay, but how much power are you willing to give to these folks.

This issue is as close as your backyard.