Pacific Coast Highway Productions grew out of a desperate early morning plea for help.

 

My friends Peg and her husband Dan recently got married, and purchased land in Topanga Canyon, California. It was a dream come true for them.  Last time we spoke they were very happy….This time her voice trembled.  

 

Peggy spoke quickly in between short panicked breaths, “We received a cease and desist order from The California Coastal Commission.  They claim we’ve violated the Coastal Act . They are planning an inspection on our property this afternoon….can you show up with a video camera?” 

 

My friend Peg is many things: a good mom, a wonderful cook, a dedicated wife, and a great gardner – an alarmist she is not. That last sentence, “can you show up with a video camera?” opened a window in to an previously invisible world and set in motion a series of events I wish never occurred. Their dream-come-true was about to turn into a nightmare and, unknowingly, that nightmare had just become mine.

 

Living inland, like most Californians, I didn’t know that California even had a coastal commission, but it made sense if we did have one, it probably had something to do with the beaches.

 

What was a beach commission doing handing out cease and desist orders to people that lived so far from the coast you can’t even smell the Pacific?  

 

 

 

 

 

The commission arrived with quite an entourage: a deputy attorney general and sherrif’s deputies. Seemed kind of over kill for an inspection of land.

 

They must have also cajoled a state judge to issue a court order to prohibit filming. They latter issued warrants. I couldn’t believe it. Ok, maybe if Peg and Dan built a secret nuculear plant or were drilling for oil but they just cleared some dirt that slid onto a road.

 

That’s when I began to realize something bigger was going on. The small voice in the back of my head suggested I go a little deeper.

 

 

 

That’s when the idea to make a documentary film took root.  3 1/2 years later that idea evolved into  SINS OF COMMISSION, an 80 minute feature documentary film.

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