Coastal property owners and cities want to build or extend seawalls to protect homes, infrastructure, and roads from rising seas and storm damage; but environmental advocates and scientists oppose these structures because they can worsen beach erosion over time and because they violate laws meant to preserve public shoreline access, reported The New York Times.

Some of these conflicts are playing out in court across the country. In California, a state appeals court in December indicated it would uphold rules limiting the construction of sea walls along the coast, denying a complex of 10 townhomes the chance to build a permanent 257-foot concrete sea wall along the crumbling shoreline.

In March, the state supreme court denied the townhomes’ petition for review.

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