Marin County's Local Coastal Program Amendments

On April 24th, the Marin County Board of Supervisors will consider accepting the Marin County Local Coastal Program Amendments. All the LCP amendments (except Environmental Hazards) were conditionally certified in November 2016 by the California Coastal Commission. In order to finalize the process, the Marin County Board of Supervisors needs to accept the amendments.

Why it matters
Local Coastal Programs (LCPs) are the basic planning tools used by local governments to guide development in the coastal zone in partnership with the Coastal Commission. LCPs specify appropriate locations, types, and the scale of new or changed uses of land and water. Marin County's LCP was last updated in 1981. Marin County has been working to amend the 1981 LCP since 2008. The LCP Amendments have run into several snags over the years in areas concerning agricultural uses and environmental hazards (climate change planning) that have resulted in withdrawals and delays.

On April 24th, the Marin County Board of Supervisors will consider to either accept or reject the conditionally certified LCP amendments. Currently, Marin County staff is requesting that the Supervisors accept most of the LCP except for a few amendments concerning the definitions of "ongoing agriculture" and "redevelopment."

The LCP Amendments are not perfect, as they are the result of a decade of public process work. Nevertheless, it is critical that the LCP amendments are accepted so that Marin County may begin the critical work to update our environmental hazards policies to cope with the threats of climate change, including sea-level rise and flooding. If the LCP amendments are not accepted, the 1981 LCP will remain in effect. Unfortunately, the 1981 LCP does not include the appropriate planning tools for climate change threats like sea-level rise and flooding. If the LCP amendments are rejected, the County will need to start this process all over again and there will be significant delays before it returns to the Coastal Commission for review.

Next Steps
Tell your supervisor to accept the LCP amendments by submitting comments by April 19th by 4pm.

Comments may be submitted by filling out the below form which will provide an email template that may be customized and will send to the Marin County Board of Supervisors.

The County has requested that comments be received by April 19th.

You DO NOT Have to be a Marin resident to lend you voice to the supervisors in support of this item.

Learn More
Read EAC's updates on the LCP amendment process since 2016

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Send Your Comments

Below is a sample letter to express your support of recognizing the importance of nesting birds in Marin County. Please make sure to personalize your comments.

PLEASE NOTE: IF YOUR STREET ADDRESS DOESN'T WORK, TRY YOUR PO BOX.

Marin County Board of Supervisors

Subject: Accept the Local Coastal Program Amendments on April 24th.

Message:

Dear Supervisors: I am writing to support the Board of Supervisor's acceptance of the Marin County Local Coastal Program amendments. The community has spent a decade working on the LCP amendments, balancing the needs for community development and land-use with the protection of our coastal resources as mandated by the California Coastal Act. We should not stall these efforts with any further delays. While the amendments are not perfect, they provide critical updates to our outdated 1981 planning policies and implementation measures, and most importantly - once the environmental hazards chapter is completed - critical planning tools for our communities to adapt to the impending threats of sea-level rise. The Board of Supervisors should accept all of the non-environmental hazards LCP amendments so that Marin County and the Coastal Commission can turn their attention to environmental hazards, which is not addressed in the 1981 Certified LCP. This is critical so that our communities will have the appropriate planning tools to address the local impacts of climate change like flooding and sea-level rise. If Marin County fails to accept the amendments on April 24th, Marin County's LCP amendment process will be at the "bottom of the Coastal Commission pile," and we will even further delay implementation of our environmental hazards adaptation strategies, which are meant to be part of the County's LCP. The delay in sea-level rise adaptation planning that would result from the County letting the Coastal Commission's conditional certification expire (deadline is May 2nd) would have significant impacts to coastal resources in West Marin. Delaying the LCP amendment years into the future jeopardizes Marin County's C-SMART program (Collaboration: Sea-level Marin Adaptation Response Team) and our communities' ability to adapt to impending environmental hazards. Thank you for the consideration of my comments and your support to accept the Local Coastal Program Amendments.

Remaining:

Marin County's Local Coastal Program Amendments

The County has requested that comments be received by April 19th.

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