Support for SB 963 (Laird) — CDP Appeal Deadlines

The Commission voted unanimously to support SB 963 (Laird), a bill that aims to provide certainty around when appealed projects come before the Commission for their de novo review. 

Currently, when a coastal development permit gets appealed to the Commission and the Commission finds it raises a "substantial issue," there is no legal deadline for when the follow-up (de novo) hearing must be scheduled. The absence of a deadline has contributed to a perception that appeals drag on forever. This can discourage developers, especially affordable housing developers, from building in the coastal zone at all. SB 963 fixes that by codifying two deadlines:

• 30 days after finding a substantial issue, the Commission must tell the applicant exactly what additional information it needs.
• 180 days after receiving that information, the Commission must hold the de novo hearing and take final action.

Additionally, the bill also sets basic ground rules for filing an appeal — appellants must use the Commission's standard form and clearly identify what's inconsistent with the LCP or Coastal Act. That protects applicants from frivolous appeals and saves Commission staff time parsing vague filings.

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The reality is that less than 4% of locally approved projects are appealed, and the majority are dismissed as not raising a substantial issue. Which means only 1-2% of locally approved projects require a de novo hearing before the Commission. While rare, this has led to the perception that appeals are common and take years to resolve. And Commission detractors have weaponized the lack of a de novo deadline to paint the agency as a major obstruction to coastal housing development.

Optics matter, so Senator Laird and Commission supporters crafted this bill to standardize the CDP appeals process and provide more certainty for all parties. The appeal process is one of the public's key tools for flagging potentially harmful coastal development, and this bill doesn't weaken it. Making it more predictable and harder to dismiss as a bureaucratic black hole is good for coastal protection long-term.

Coalition partners Surfrider, California Coastal Protection Network, Azul, and West Marin EAC all support it, and there's no opposition on file. Commissioner Nothoff noted that it's rare to see Surfrider Foundation and Pacific Legal Foundation, a group that routinely accuses the Commission of abuse and overreach, on the same side of any bill.

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