The Marin County Board of Supervisors will consider accepting the LCP amendments on April 24th at 1:30 PM.
EAC will be testifying at the hearing and supports the acceptance of all of the LCP amendments, so that we can begin to develop local policies to adapt to climate change. LCPs are the appropriate tool for a county to conduct comprehensive climate change planning in the coastal zone.
Tell your supervisors to accept the LCP amendments at the hearing or by submitting comments by April 19th! Let us know if you can join us at the hearing. There is a lot of opposition to a full acceptance of the LCP amendments (although this is the only real option), so we could really use your support on this issue!
Suggested written comments:
- The Board of Supervisors should approve all of the LCP amendments so that Marin County and the Coastal Commission can turn their attention to environmental hazards, which is not addressed in the 1981 Certified LCP.
- The whole community has spent a decade working on the LCP amendments, balancing the needs for community development and land-use with the protection of our coastal resources as mandated by the California Coastal Act.
- While the amendments are not perfect, they provide critical updates to our outdated 1981 planning policies and implementation measures, and most importantly – once the environmental hazards chapter is completed –critical planning tools for our communities to adapt to the impending threats of sea-level rise.
- If Marin County fails to accept the amendments on April 24th, Marin County's LCP amendment process will be at the "bottom of the Coastal Commission pile," and we will even further delay our environmental hazards adaptation strategies, which are meant to be part of the County's LCP.
- The delay in sea-level rise adaptation planning that would result from the County letting the Coastal Commission's conditional certification expire (deadline is May 2nd) would have significant impacts to coastal resources in West Marin.
- Delaying the LCP amendment years into the future jeopardizes Marin County's C-SMART (Collaboration: Sea-level Marin Adaptation Response Team) and our communities’ ability to adapt to impending environmental hazards.
