AB 1740 (Zbur)
HOME sponsor: Abundant Housing LA (Streets for All and City of Santa Monica cosponsoring)
The Problem
By requiring an extensive and time- consuming process for permitting limited projects, the Coastal Commission can inhibit local jurisdictions’ ability to progress on key, shared goals.
These include constructing housing already allowed under local or state law, making minor building updates or changing the use of an existing building, further developing transit-rich communities by building housing and adding bike or bus lanes, allowing the hosting of temporary events, and adding outdoor dining to existing, fully permitted restaurants.
In areas that are urbanized, intensively developed, and void of sensitive ecological resources and habitats, Coastal Commission oversight merely adds cost and significant delay- and diverts Commission staff resources from their crucial role of protecting our beaches and sensitive habitats.
The Solution
AB 1740 modernizes coastal zone governance by recognizing and empowering certain urbanized, transit-rich communities to administer limited specified projects without the need for individual coastal development permits.
This bill only applies to a small fraction of the coastal zone and will preserve the California Coastal Commission’s authority and ability to protect beaches and coastal resources from activities that threaten sensitive coastal resources and habitats or might reduce public coastal access in areas that do not have transit and other multimodal transportation options.
This bill creates a narrow and rigorous set of criteria for a city (or portion of a city or county) to be certified as an Urban Multimodal Community (UMC). To qualify, a jurisdiction must have:
High quality transit in the coastal zone;
Bike infrastructure in the coastal zone;
Adopted targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fatal and severe injury crashes.
If these criteria are met for all or a portion of a jurisdiction, the city may choose to be certified as an Urban Multimodal Community.
As a UMC, regulatory authority over a select set of actions would return to the city and be exempted from Coastal Commission oversight.
Contact for questions: Scott Epstein, scott@abundanthousingla.org