Solana Beach has been actively working to prepare a Local Coastal Program, or LCP, since 2000. An LCP, which regulates development in the coastal zone, is required by the California Coastal Act of 1976 to ensure coastal areas are used and developed according to statewide public objectives. As a first step towards completing its LCP, a Land Use Plan (LUP) must first be created. In February 2013, the Solana Beach City Council accepted a LUP. The Council also directed staff to prepare a Land Use Plan Amendment, or LUPA, to modify some of the provisions in the LUP, relating to bluff top development, shoreline protection and private beach access ways. The draft LUPA was developed with California Coastal Commission staff and interested stakeholders, and later approved by the council in May 2013. Following the council’s approval, city staff continued to meet with CCC staff and stakeholders to try to reach a consensus on as many of the revised draft policies as possible. During those meetings, some additional changes were made. On June 11, the LUPA was approved by the city council, more than a year after council members first adopted the LUP.
During the June 11 council meeting, a few community members and stakeholders urged the council to approve the LUPA, whether or not they agreed with everything in the amendment.
Now that the city has an adopted LUP, work on the Local Implementation Plan, or LIP, is planned to begin in the next fiscal year. An LIP consists of implementing zoning ordinances and maps.
Beach Preservation co-chair Jim Jaffee commented on the lengthy process to get this LUP approved: “When we adopted the LCP, one of the things that I asked you to do at that time … was to realize that the Constitution of the United States has been amended several times. The Bill of Rights was amended shortly after the approval of the Constitution itself. So it’s OK to accept that things are going to change and they’re going to be modified over time. I appreciate that we went through this process. I can tell you that it didn’t turn out exactly the way we would have liked it to. We objected to many of the things that are in there. But I also realize that after all this time has lapsed, at some point, you’ve got to keep kicking the can down the road.”
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