Is there more development to come on the California coast?

from Nadia LathanCalMatters

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

Bone-colored bluffs and jagged cliffs line Monterey’s shoreline, where chalky sand meets redwoods.

Its rugged coastline, including beloved destinations like Big Sur, is a well-known California iconography protected by California Coastal Act for nearly 50 years.

Seeking to address the state’s overwhelming housing crisis, the California Coastal Commission last week approved a rule change to make it easier to build affordable housing in Monterey and elsewhere along hundreds of miles of Pacific coast.

It was the latest effort by the powerful state agency to combat its bad reputation among housing advocates and Democratic leaders, who see it as an obstacle to sweeping housing reform in California’s coveted coastal regions. While minor and uncontroversial, the amendment was one of a handful of changes the commission made in recent months in an effort to be seen as playing a role in addressing the state’s crippling housing crisis.

It published a report for the first time in 2024 that showed local governments were responsible for approving the majority of permits in coastal regions, and this year the agency is working with housing activists to make it easier to build student housing in coastal cities. The Coastal Commission also did not oppose landmark housing reform law which excludes most new developments from environmental review.

“I think it’s going to be a real life changer,” Susan Jordan, a longtime conservationist and founder of the California Coastal Protection Network, said of the regulatory amendment at the meeting.

Reputation Rehabilitation: Steps to More Homes

Twelve people — six local elected officials and six members of the public — vote on the independent, quasi-judicial state agency charged with preserving more than 800 miles of California’s coastline and keeping it open to the public. Its authority extends about 1,000 yards inland from where the land meets the water at high tide.

The commission has come under relentless scrutiny in recent years for not allowing enough affordable housing in coastal cities or doing so too slowly, as state lawmakers have overturned numerous housing regulations to facilitate the construction of more apartments.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, a critic of the commission, and other Democratic leaders appointed three local pro-development officials this year to help approve more housing and other projects along the Pacific Coast.

In October, Newsom appointed wealthy real estate developer Jaime Lee to replace Effie Turnbull Sanders. A lawyer appointed by former Gov. Jerry Brown, Sanders was hailed by environmentalists as a harbinger environmental justice policies to the agency.

Chairman of the meeting Robert Rivasa Salinas Democrat, named two pro-development commission appointees in May: Monterey County Supervisor Chris Lopez and Chula Vista Councilman Jose Preciado.

Hermosa Beach Councilman Ray Jackson was appointed earlier this year by the Democratic Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire of Santa Rosa and is largely skeptical of big developers.

In a unanimous vote last week, Peciado, Lopez and Jackson approved changing commission rules to allow more time to build affordable housing projects in coastal areas, from two to five years after permits are issued. Lee was not at the November 6 meeting.

Staff and commissioners hailed the change as a step in the right direction for affordable housing that could not be funded quickly enough within the previous two-year deadline.

“I think next year will be a good opportunity to start an education campaign in the Legislature to highlight some of the moves we’ve made toward this,” Commissioner Linda Escalante said. “I don’t know if we can have a white paper to walk around and understand some of the reputational issues that we have.”

A history of shoreline protection

Critics of the commission point to exorbitant housing prices along the coast, some of the highest in the country, and a disproportionate number of white residents as exacerbating the housing shortage. For some, the commission’s priorities don’t match the urgency lawmakers and local officials have to help solve the spending problem.

Two-thirds of coastal residents are white, about twice as many as the state as a whole, according to analysis by Nicholas Depsky of the United Nations Development Programme.

Less than 2.5% of California residents live in coastal cities, or “coastal areas,” that cover less than 1 percent of the state’s land but are home to some of the world’s most valuable real estate, from Malibu to Marin.

The Coastal Commission began as a ballot initiative in 1972 in the shadow of the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, one of the nation’s worst environmental disasters at the time. Amid a broader national environmental movement, there was greater concern about how to protect California’s coveted coastline amid unregulated offshore drilling and fears of relentless development that would mirror Miami’s coastline.

Four years later, the state legislature made the commission permanent with the Coastal Act to protect its natural habitat and keep beaches open to the public.

Early tensions between then-Governor Jerry Brown and the commission boiled over when, in 1978, he called its members “bureaucratic thugs,” just years after defending its creation. Brown would spend his final years in office, nearly 40 years later, agitated by environmentalists’ criticism who accused him of appointing commissioners who were too pro-development. Those fears intensified with the ouster in 2016 of executive director Charles Lester, a strong advocate of coastal protection.

Scrutiny of the commission has accelerated in the Newsom administration as the governor has publicly chided the agency for its broad powers. After the Los Angeles fires, he quickly suspended all authority over rebuilding efforts in the Pacific Palisades, which border the shoreline.

Last year, the commission rejected billionaire Elon Musk’s proposal to increase the number of SpaceX rocket launches off the coast of Santa Barbara, while criticizing his support for President Donald Trump. Newsom said he was “with Elon” after the company sued for political discrimination. The case is still pending.

Lee, the newest commissioner, hails from Los Angeles and has built a reputation as a prolific developer known for revitalizing Koreatown. Her real estate company, Jamison Properties, has built 6,600 multifamily units and is one of the largest private landowners in Los Angeles, according to its website.

Lee did not return emails and phone calls for comment from CalMatters.

The new appointments have many housing advocates hopeful. “We now have three of the 12 voting members appointed to the commission at a time when many lawmakers and the governor are calling for reform of the commission to design more affordable housing,” said Luis Mirante, a lobbyist with the business coalition Bay Area Council. “That tells me that these members are likely to take that vision forward.”

Lopez, who has emphasized his support for affordable waterfront housing since joining the commission, said the optimism is justified.

“I think that excitement is appropriate given where we are right now and given the voice that the speaker and the governor are making on this issue and wanting to see a resolution to it,” Lopez said. “And I really feel like the reason I was put here was to bring that conversation to the forefront.”

Environmentalists are watching

Conservationists were generally silent on the new appointments. Instead, they are waiting to see how they vote before raising the alarm.

“While there are concerns expressed in the environmental movement, at this point we have no idea what this commissioner (Lee) will be like,” said Jennifer Savage, associate director of the Surfrider Foundation, a coastal protection group. Lee was not an obvious choice for many, but Savage is optimistic that he will support coastal defense.

“It’s not really that surprising that the governor would appoint someone with expertise in housing,” given the political climate, she continued.

A longtime local water authority official and current administrator at San Diego State University, Preciado said part of his pitch for the role to top Democratic leaders is that he wants to see more of the coast developed to help create jobs and homes for working-class families.

“We have a strong interest in developing the California coast in such a way that underrepresented communities that live on the coast have greater access,” Preciado said of himself and Lopez.

Wealthy coastal residents have long argued with the Violation Commission to block public access, such as Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla, who was embroiled in numerous legal battles with regulators and coastal groups for years over access to Martins Beach near Half Moon Bay.

Many commissioners and staff view the protection of public access and preservation as their primary goal rather than housing policy.

Conservatism is out of fashion, even among Democrats, which has caused support for the committee to swing dramatically in recent years, according to Legislative Director Sarah Christie.

For some commissioners, lawmakers’ drive to strip more and more of his housing authority is a misguided attempt to simplify a complex issue. They point out that 80% of coastal cities and counties have their own coastal laws and are not subject to the commission.

“It creates a lot of chaos and dysfunction at the local level and makes it more difficult,” Christie said of the move to reduce housing regulations. “In the Legislature’s enthusiasm and zeal to get housing faster, they’re kind of getting ahead of themselves.”

Jackson, the commissioner who represents the South Bay, said lawmakers should focus more on affordable housing rather than increasing supply more broadly.

Special environmental considerations and highly sought-after scenery are what make the waterfront uniquely expensive, Preciado said. “I think a broader view, a more objective view, is that waterfront development is different from urban development.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.