Anyone with Coastal Commission Permit experience?

[Emmanuel Ruggiero]

Hello everyone!

I'm planning on build my next house with ocean view. Because of that I will be dealing with coastal commission. I've been scouting various plots of land over LA county. My budget is roughly $1M. I have about $200K cash to put towards this project and a decent income which would easily afford me an $800K loan. My budget is split roughly at $500K for land ( Ideally shovel-ready) and $500K to build ($250/sqft avg with 2000sqft). I'm also pretty handy and my in-law makes high end wood cabinets so I could save on the building by doing some of the big tickets myself (kitchen, bathroom, etc..). I could potentially put some more money if something would to come up...
Ideally I would do 10% down with seller financing on the land, 30% down on the building loan and then I would refinance once the construction is over. 
I found one lot that has this possibility but the owner didn't get permits. He did all the tests (perks, geology...) but never did architectural plans nor got permits for it. I would have to do those and get coast commission approval and the land is already at the top of my "land budget". 

How long would the coastal commission take to approve? 

Is there any way to accelerate the approval? 

Anyone with experience build/permitting with coast commission here? 

Any advice?

Thanks for your time!