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COMMISSION TAKES STEP FOR LOCAL COASTAL PLANS
Plans are a key instrument for protection of coastal lands

Mark Massara

Sierra Club Coastal Director Mark Massara listens as Long Beach activists volunteer to testify at a Coastal Commission meeting.

Months and months of work finally paid off on June 12, 2003, when the California Coastal Commission passed a resolution that our campaign has long fought for. The resolution urges the governor and lieutenant governor to give the Commission the power to force communities to update their Local Coastal Plans.

For more than a year, Great Coastal Places Campaign activists focused on the ongoing issue of Local Coastal Plans, which used to be the most important instrument for coastal protection, though few had heard of it. Then our campaign members drew attention to the importance of these plans, attended meetings about them and brought hundreds and hundreds of people before the Coastal Commission to testify in order to make sure that the Commissioners were well aware of what Local Coastal Plans are and why they matter so much to our coastline.

What are Local Coastal Plans?

Briefly, Local Coastal Plans look at a coastal region's open space, population, threatened species, industry and pollution and requires that planners take these factors into account when they decide to develop the area. The 1976 Coastal Act states that these plans must first be certified and then updated periodically, because each of these important issues can change with time. However, very few coastal communities have actually updated their Local Coastal Plans and some have no approved plan at all!

Why? Because in short, the Coastal Act fails to require Local Coastal Plan creation or review.

In many cases it's more advantageous for developers to use environmental informaiton from 20 years ago. Traffic pollution and development have increased in most locations over of the past two decades, while beach access and protection of habitat have decreased. Rather than burying their heads in the sand, commissioners should be using modern scientific information and evidence when considering new development.

So 18 months ago, Great Coastal Places Campaign members started testifying before the Commission, writing letters and sending emails, and this month the hard work finally paid off. The Commission in a 6 to 2 vote decided to send a letter to the governor and the state legislature asking for the power to force governments to update their Local Coastal Plans.

We're not finished!

While this resolution doesn't become law simply because the Coastal Commission says it is important, this is a groundbreaking and important step. No matter what happens from here, this has been a tremendous victory, but we are far from finished. We are going to take this victory and move forward. The Sierra Club Great Coastal Places Campaign will continue on its journey to get Local Coastal Plans updated. And with your help, we will prevail!

What you can do:

Write a thank you letter to the Coastal Commissioners who supported this resolution. Let them know that you love the coast, and that you saw them make the right choice in standing up for coastal protection with the Local Coastal Plan Update resolution:

Chairman Mike Reilly
Pedro Nava
Sara Wan
John Woolley
Toni Iseman
Christina L. Desser

Contact information for Coastal Commissioners can be found here.

Full details for the Local Coastal Plan Update Resolution can be found here (downloadable pdf file). Please note that sections e. and f. (still shown) were removed before final passage.