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The Coastal Commission docked in San Pedro, next to the Port of Los Angeles, from May 13-14. Despite a light agenda, the Commissioners earned a Pro-Coast vote for their unanimous support for SB 963 ✅, a CDP appeals reform bill supported by Commission fans and detractors alike.

On Wednesday morning, the Commission hosted a public workshop on their Draft Guidance to help local governments streamline ADU permitting in the Coastal Zone — a requirement established by SB 1077 (2024). SB 1077 originally sought to exempt ADUs from Commission oversight entirely, with no guarantee they would even be used as housing despite that being the bill's rationale. Thanks in part to ActCoastal coalition opposition, it was amended into a directive for permitting guidance instead. The result is a better model: working with the Coastal Act, not around it, to help cities streamline ADU production without compromising public access or the coastal environment.

The Commission also approved the City of Ventura's application for rock armoring across 600 feet of public beach to protect the Promenade near Surfer's Point. The City has been armoring this stretch of eroding beach since at least 2011 with no long-term plan, and the beach has paid the price. Fortunately, the Commission used this CDP as an opportunity to require the City to draft a long-term hazards plan that evaluates feasible alternatives to armoring, which offers a glimmer of hope for the beach’s future. The City will also be replacing a degraded access stairway as part of the permit. Additional armoring on an eroding beach is not a Pro-Coast outcome, but the decision stopped short of an Anti-Coast vote. What happens over the next 10 years will determine the future of this stretch of beach. Read our full report for a detailed writeup.

Finally on Wednesday, the Commission found "substantial issue" with a locally-approved Laguna Beach blufftop home, and approved a revised design following a de novo hearing (meaning the Commission reviewed the project from scratch). The item pitted the Commission's authority to enforce blufftop setback rules against the applicant's property rights, and Surfrider argued the Commission's proposed resolution tipped too far in the applicant's favor at the expense of the coastal bluff face. The Commissioners ultimately approved the staff recommendation. Like the Ventura item, this decision falls somewhere between Pro-Coast and Anti-Coast. Our full report breaks down how the Commission threaded that needle.

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