Sacramento Report: The State Agency that Punches Above its Weight Class

This week, I set out to learn about the California Coastal Commission, the 49-year-old governing body responsible for hundreds of miles of the state’s coastline that has an outsized importance to San Diego and its elected officials.

That led me to Mike Borisov, a recent UC San Diego graduate. Hailing from Glendale, Borisov considered himself lucky when he nabbed on-campus housing as a transfer student to the sprawling oceanside campus two years ago.

“It was wonderful,” said Borsiov, who earned his bachelor’s degree in public policy this summer. “You really do feel a community spirit when you’re on campus.”

UC San Diego and other coastal colleges aim to make experiences like Borisov’s the standard for their tens of thousands of students with the help of a new bill seeking to weaken the powerful commission and the decades-old initiative that governs it: the California Coastal Act.

On-campus housing is more affordable than living off campus for most students, Borisov said. But at an eye-popping 45,000 enrollees, there are more pupils than bedrooms at UC San Diego. 

One way advocates and lawmakers have tried to address this is by looking toward the ocean, in the jurisdiction of the Coastal Commission, and pushing policy that makes it easier to build there.

Assembly Bill 357, authored by Democratic Assemblymember David Alvarez, would give universities the power to decide how much parking is needed for new student housing in what’s known as the “coastal zone.” Those in favor of more development in the coastal zone, which extends about 1,000 yards inland from the mean high tide line, see it as a way to reduce housing development costs and, hopefully, spur more of it.

Now atop the governor’s desk, the proposal is the latest effort by state officials to curtail the Coastal Commission’s authority amid a growing appetite to stem a dire housing crisis.

What Is the California Coastal Commission?

The Coastal Commission is a state agency created by the 1976 coastal act that works to protect California’s roughly 840-mile coast and ensure public access. It’s governed by a 15-member board who are appointed by the governor and top lawmakers.

It has control over undeveloped areas along the entire California coast, including Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Diego, the latter of which has the largest coastal zone and is home to 9 percent of county residents.

Sen. Steve Padilla, a Democrat, served as former chair on the commission and Chula Vista Councilmember Jose Preciado is a current commissioner.

Increased Political Scrutiny

For years, the Coastal Commission has been mired in criticism from environmentalists and pro-development groups alike. In 1978, during his first term, Democratic former Gov. Jerry Brown called commissioners “bureaucratic thugs” despite signing the bill that helped create the agency just two years prior. Decades later in his final term, conservationists scrutinized his appointments to the board as too pro-development.

Today, the commission continues to receive criticism from the left and the right, including from Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and Republican President Donald Trump, over accusations that it needlessly throttles housing development.

Housing proponents have long cast it as an impediment to cheap housing, while conservationists view it as a vital tool protecting the state’s beloved bluffs, cliffs and natural wetlands.

“I wish the coastal act and commission had a different prioritization process,” said Louis Mirante, a lobbyist with the business coalition Bay Area Council. “The coastal zone is one of the more opaque places for development in California.”

Previous Efforts Have Been Curtailed

Last year, a package of bills aimed at exempting affordable housing from the California Coastal Act died in the Senate Natural Resources Committee, which worked to defend the Coastal Commission.

Alvarez had introduced one of those bills and said that it ultimately became too watered down after various amendments to the point of being “ineffective at building more housing.”

This year’s proposal would drop the Coastal Commission requirement that each new dormitory building in the coastal zone have a certain number of parking spaces, speeding up the process and requiring less land for construction, according to Ryan Lenney, co-chair of the Student HOMES Coalition, an advocacy group that sponsored it.

However, the original legislation was more ambitious, first focusing on broadly exempting universities, namely UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara, from the coastal act entirely. 

The updated, more restrictive version received no opposition in the Senate Natural Resources Committee and passed unanimously in both chambers.

California Coastal Protection Network, an advocacy group dedicated to protecting the coastal act, initially opposed the bill but shifted to neutral after amendments were made in the Senate, according to Executive Director Susan Jordan.

The Coastal Commission did not take a position, but “support the intent of the bill and appreciate the overall approach,” legislative director of the Coastal Commission, Sarah Christie, said in an email to me. “We look forward to implementing the policy should the Governor sign the bill.”

“It can really throw a wrench in things when a university is moving forward with a project and some condition is imposed by the commission, and then they have to go back to the drawing board,” Lenney said.

“By returning the power to universities, we’re hoping to prevent delays.”

Thanks for reading the Sacramento Report. If you have any tips or story ideas for my newsletter, please feel free to reach me at: nadia@voiceofsandiego.org.

What I’m Reading

• L.A. County outlines multiple breakdowns that led to evacuation alert failures during deadly Eaton fire. (Los Angeles Times)
• Chula Vista becomes first in county to embrace AI in policing. (Voice of San Diego)
• Viral parking ticket app lasts just 4 hours as city kills project. (The San Francisco Standard)

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