The Santa Barbara City Council has moved a step closer to finalizing its Coastal Land Use Plan — but it will take longer to complete the Sea Level Rise Adaptation Plan.
The city spent several years developing the document and working to get it approved by the California Coastal Commission. The Commission approved the document in May, with 23 minor modifications that bring more clarity and fix unintentional errors.
City Council members voted last week to implement the changes, which included adjustments related to parking, habitat buffers, hazard buffers, shoreline protection devices and nonconforming development.
Now the Coastal Land Use Plan needs to go back to the Coastal Commission staff for review, followed by a concurrence hearing on Aug. 7 to solidify the document. At that point, it will become the law of the land for any development proposals within the city’s Coastal Zone.
“This is a very big deal,” Mayor Cathy Murillo said.
The 372-page document, which updates one that was approved in 1986, focuses on protection and balanced use of coastal resources, along with maximizing public access to the coast.
Santa Barbara’s Coastal Zone is about 4 miles long, and about 65 percent of the city’s shoreline is in public ownership.
One of the changes in the plan affects property owners with stairwells to the beach.
No new private access stairways are allowed on the bluffs, and no substantially redeveloped stairwells are allowed over the bluffs.
Still to come, however, is the city’s Sea Level Rise Adaptation Plan. That will evaluate strategies to address short-term and long-term sea level rise impacts.
The document is expected to be released later this summer, and the City Council and Coastal Commission will review it in 2020.
Related to the goal of maximizing coastal access, Santa Barbara is also working on a Lower-Cost Overnight Accommodations Study, which will examine hotels, hostels, camping facilities, boat slips, and short-term rentals.
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
