California Coastal Commission Jobs in California

Company:

California Coastal Commission
Current Opportunities (0)
Company Website

Location(s):

45 Fremont Street
Suite 1900
San Francisco, CA
94105
Map Location

Phone:

(415) 954-5200

Industry:

Government

Size:

100-499

Company Overview

The mission of the California Coastal Commission is to:

Protect, conserve, restore, and enhance environmental and human-based resources of the California coast and ocean for environmentally sustainable and prudent use by current and future generations.

The California Coastal Commission was established by voter initiative in 1972 (Proposition 20) and later made permanent by the Legislature through adoption of the California Coastal Act of 1976.

The Coastal Commission, in partnership with coastal cities and counties, plans and regulates the use of land and water in the coastal zone. Development activities, which are broadly defined by the Coastal Act to include (among others) construction of buildings, divisions of land, and activities that change the intensity of use of land or public access to coastal waters, generally require a coastal permit from either the Coastal Commission or the local government.

The Commission is an independent, quasi-judicial state agency. The Commission is composed of twelve voting members, appointed equally (four each) by the Governor, the Senate Rules Committee, and the Speaker of the Assembly. Six of the voting commissioners are locally elected officials and six are appointed from the public at large. Four ex officio (non-voting) members represent the Resources Agency, the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, the Trade and Commerce Agency, and the State Lands Commission.

The coastal zone, which was specifically mapped by the Legislature, covers an area larger than the State of Rhode Island. On land the coastal zone varies in width from several hundred feet in highly urbanized areas up to five miles in certain rural areas, and offshore the coastal zone includes a three-mile-wide band of ocean. The coastal zone established by the Coastal Act does not include San Francisco Bay, where development is regulated by the Bay Conservation and Development Commission.

Along with the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), the Coastal Commission is one of California's two designated coastal management agencies for the purpose of administering the federal Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) in California. The most significant provisions of the federal CZMA give state coastal management agencies regulatory control (federal consistency review authority) over all federal activities and federally licensed, permitted or assisted activities, wherever they may occur (i.e., landward or seaward of the respective coastal zone boundaries fixed under state law) if the activity affects coastal resources.

Examples of such federal activities include: outer continental shelf oil and gas leasing, exploration and development; designation of dredge material disposal sites in the ocean; military projects at coastal locations; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers fill permits; certain U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service permits; national park projects; highway improvement projects assisted with federal funds; and commercial space launch projects on federal lands. Federal consistency is an important coastal management tool because it is often the only review authority over federal activities affecting coastal resources given to any state agency.