The California Coastal Commission voted unanimously Thursday to fine a Carlsbad homeowner $1.4 million and ordered him to remove a gate that blocks public access to the Buena Vista Lagoon and the beach just south of the Carlsbad border.

The locked gate is on Mountain View Drive at the beginning of a driveway to John Levy’s custom-built, two-story house beside the lagoon.

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Levy built the gate on land owned by the homeowners association of an adjacent bluff-top condominium complex. An easement approved by the Coastal Commission in 1983 requires the property to remain open for public access to the nearby beach and the lagoon, and to what later became Levy’s property.

Levy’s house is built on leveled

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