The Impact on Housing Costs of the California Coastal Zone Conservation Act1

Evaluating the impact of California's Coastal Commissions' actions on housing costs provide challenges to economists and political scientists for which they lack both adequate theory and data to reach decisive conclusions. At best evaluation of eight years of Commissions' actions indicate that their actions have saved some scarce coastal resources most in need of protection. However, these achievements created some types of excessive costs and market dislocations which promise to affect adversely housing costs in major populous urban areas. Unfortunately the full range of public and private costs remains undefined and current judgments about Commissions' actions must remain tentative.