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It’s official: The City of Malibu has a Local Coastal Program -- a document that can protect Malibu's coast for residents, visitors and future generations.

Although the City fought creation of an LCP every step of the way, this month the California Coastal Commission approved the plan, completing the process mandated by the state Legislature. An LCP provides local government with the power to make its own decisions regarding coastal development and resource protection. In Malibu, however, one of the wealthiest communities in California, the city preferred to let the state Coastal Commission make all the local development decisions (and thereby pay for the planning and environmental review) rather than develop the expertise itself.

The Coastal Commission made every effort to appease the city, and in the end was able to pass an LCP -- for which Malibu residents can be thankful. The Malibu LCP contains many groundbreaking policies and is more than sufficient to protect coastal resources and insure public beach access for future generations.

Unfortunately, pro-development Commissioner Cynthia McClain-Hill eliminated a requirement that the city produce a specific development plan for the "Civic Center" area. The "Civic Center" is a floodplain and wetlands area in the middle of town where the city is proposing more than 1 million square feet of commercial development (an amount vastly exceeding the needs of Malibu's 12,000 residents). The move benefited the Malibu Bay Company, a real estate development firm (and largest landowner in Malibu),which is seeking to build in the floodplains and wetlands.

Still, the new Malibu LCP is a tremendous victory. It will permanently improve beach access and protect resources for the community. Today Malibu has 142 vertical accessways to the beach, yet only 12 exist and are open, and only one has parking. The new LCP sets a goal of a new accessway every 1,000 feet along the entire 27 miles of coastline. The Commission also approved a first-ever environmental justice policy that prevents Malibu from ever attempting to establish beach access which adversely impacts ethnic minority populations. The Malibu LCP designates approximately half of the city as Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Area.