Captivated by the spectacular natural beauty of northern Californias Mendocino coast, the author and his wife, Margie, residents of Virginia, purchase a magnificent eleven-acre promontory high above the Pacific Ocean near the remote village of Elk. On retiring years later, they decide to build their dream home there. Seeking no more than whats sanctioned by law, they nevertheless encounter fierce opposition from County and State Parks officials, a hostile faction of Elk citizens, and the local media. In a six-year battle that ignites civil war in the little village, Margie and TG fight back. Well into the conflict they discover the hidden and improper motivation behind much of the opposition. That paves the way for a settlement with the County. But opponents promptly appeal the case to the California Coastal Commission, and there the final showdown takes place. Seaside Dream Home Besieged makes a clear and compelling case for land-use reforms designed to achieve a more-just and more-harmonious relationship between scenic preservation and property rights. Included are extensive contending quotes from both sides of the conflict, providing insight into the legal and ethical points at issue, as well as into local coastal culture and obstructive human behavior. With its mystery, sleuthing, assorted (non-lethal) casualties, and colorful real-life scoundrels, Seaside Dream Home Besieged provides suspenseful and entertaining reading. Moreover, its an indispensable guidebook for those who dare to enter the land-use minefields in pursuit of a building permit.

Captivated by the spectacular natural beauty of northern Californias Mendocino coast, the author and his wife, Margie, residents of Virginia, purchase a magnificent eleven-acre promontory high above the Pacific Ocean near the remote village of Elk. On retiring years later, they decide to build their dream home there. Seeking no more than whats sanctioned by law, they nevertheless encounter fierce opposition from County and State Parks officials, a hostile faction of Elk citizens, and the local media. In a six-year battle that ignites civil war in the little village, Margie and TG fight back. Well into the conflict they discover the hidden and improper motivation behind much of the opposition. That paves the way for a settlement with the County. But opponents promptly appeal the case to the California Coastal Commission, and there the final showdown takes place. Seaside Dream Home Besieged makes a clear and compelling case for land-use reforms designed to achieve a more-just and more-harmonious relationship between scenic preservation and property rights. Included are extensive contending quotes from both sides of the conflict, providing insight into the legal and ethical points at issue, as well as into local coastal culture and obstructive human behavior. With its mystery, sleuthing, assorted (non-lethal) casualties, and colorful real-life scoundrels, Seaside Dream Home Besieged provides suspenseful and entertaining reading. Moreover, its an indispensable guidebook for those who dare to enter the land-use minefields in pursuit of a building permit.

Tara Mitchell Mielnik fills a significant gap in the history of the New Deal South by examining the lives of the men of South Carolina's Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) who from 1933 to 1942 built sixteen state parks, all of which still exist today. Enhanced with revealing interviews with former state CCC members, Mielnik's illustrated account provides a unique exploration into the Great Depression in the Palmetto State and the role that South Carolina's state parks continue to play as architectural legacies of a monumental New Deal program. In 1933, thousands of unemployed young men and World War I veterans were given the opportunity to work when Emergency Conservation Work (ECW), one of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal programs, came to South Carolina. Renamed the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1937, the program was responsible for planting millions of trees in reforestation projects, augmenting firefighting activities, stringing much-needed telephone lines for fire prevention throughout the state, and terracing farmland and other soil conservation projects. The most visible legacies of the CCC in South Carolina are many of the state's national forests, recreational areas, and parks. Prior to the work of the CCC, South Carolina had no state parks, but, from 1933 to 1942, the CCC built sixteen. Mielnik's briskly paced and informative study gives voice to the young men who labored in the South Carolina CCC and honors the legacy of the parks they built and the conservation and public recreation values these sites fostered for modern South Carolina.