When the Hotel del Coronado won state approval in 2010 to add 144 rooms, owners of the luxury ocean-view resort agreed to write a check for more than $1 million so that less well-heeled vacationers could afford an overnight stay on the coast — in a hostel.
Five years later, that hostel has yet to be built, but the California Coastal Commission is still trying, as it has for four decades, to enforce a little-known mandate that everyone, regardless of income, is entitled to affordable lodging along the coast.
Though the commission is widely known for its well-publicized efforts to safeguard the public's access to the water — be it a bayfront promenade in San Diego or a walkway to the beach fronting celebrity-owned homes in Malibu — its mission to preserve affordability has largely flown under the radar.