U2 guitarist The Edge has been granted permission by the California Coastal Commission to build five mansions on the Malibu coast...

Following a years-long dispute over the plans, the commission announced on its website that it is permitting the Irish musician, whose real name is David Evans, to move forward with developing the mansions and a private access road on Sweetwater Mesa in the secluded Santa Monica mountains. The Los Angeles Times first reported the news.



The agreement involves a compromise, as the area of development will be smaller than the guitarist initially wanted. The California Coastal Commission has stated that Mr. Evans will also have to make other concessions based on ecological preservation. The concessions were difficult to compromise on and will add significant costs to Evans five mansion project.



Evans had tried to obtain permits for the homes back in 2006, with the housing-development plans getting rejected in 2011. The commission initially expressed concerns that the construction of five mansions would disturb the environment and mar an undeveloped portion of the coastline. Evans spent a considerable amount of time, and money fighting the California Coastal Commission in court to get permission to build. It seems the fight was finally worth all of the effort.


U2 has been making headlines recently for having released its newest album Songs of Innocence for free on iTunes. It's safe to say that not everyone has appreciated the gift. Many iTunes users were angry with the U2 album being directly added to their iTunes play-list, with no way of removing the songs possible. Apple (after considerable negative feedback from its users) finally released a "special tool" for iTunes users to download and go about removing the unwanted U2 songs from off their iTunes systems.

Unfortunately, the new release from U2 has received poor reviews thus far from music industry critics.