SANTA CRUZ >> The city of Santa Cruz Planning and Community Development Department is asking for the public’s feedback about a proposed addition to the city’s Local Coastal Program planning document.

The city’s planning staff created a new “Beaches and Bluffs Hazard Adaptation” chapter to the city’s Local Coastal Program and a public review draft of the chapter is available on the city’s website, which is open to public comment until July 14. After planners analyze the feedback and incorporate it into the document, the new chapter will be considered by the Santa Cruz City Council tentatively in the fall.

The Local Coastal Program is a planning document in a city’s General Plan that is required by the California Coastal Act and contains the local policy framework for development and coastal resource protection within a city or county’s local coastal zone, or the area roughly 1,000 yards inland from the mean high tide line. The document is created by local jurisdictions and submitted to the California Coastal Commission for certification.

The city’s current Local Coastal Program document was approved in the 1990s by the Santa Cruz City Council. According to the city’s website, “With the adoption of a new General Plan in 2013 and environmental issues, including climate change and sea level rise, to be addressed, the update of the LCP (Local Coastal Program) is an exciting opportunity to bring the city’s policy documents into alignment and to address issues that are important both locally and globally.”

The introduction to the 23-page draft version of the “Beaches and Bluffs Hazard Adaptation” chapter elaborates that, “The primary purpose of this section is to identify and integrate shoreline adaptation strategies and supportive policies that respond to climate change, sea level rise and related hazards to update the land use planning and program requirements for the coastal zone within Santa Cruz city limits.”

The chapter consists of 17 “Coastal Resource Protection, Management, Adaptation, and Resilience Policies” sections, each outlining objectives and policies for the local coastline.

The first section, or “BB-1,” states that the objective of the “Beaches and Bluffs” chapter is to “Protect and enhance bluff, shoreline, offshore and sandy beach recreational areas for public use and enjoyment while ensuring all development (including private structures and public infrastructure) is safe from coastal hazards to the maximum extent feasible, both now and in the future.”

Other policies that would potentially be established if the chapter is added to the Local Coastal Program would be to use the “best available science,” which is defined as professionally accepted science and scientific research, such as the Coastal Commission’s Sea Level Rise Policy Guidance document.

The fifth section calls to establish a coastal change monitoring program to measure and record beach width, bluff erosion, storm damage, large wave events and recreational uses along the coast, among others, over time. According to the chapter, “Ongoing monitoring results would inform future coastal adaptation planning and should be reported periodically to the City Council. Any monitoring program should be frequently reviewed to determine the ongoing appropriateness of the adaptation pathway triggers and thresholds and resulting desired actions.”

The chapter also calls for the city to complete separate shoreline adaptation management plans for coastal areas in the city, including West Cliff Drive, Cowell and Main beaches and the shoreline along East Cliff Drive in the city limits within five years of the chapter’s certification by the Coastal Commission. Maps of those areas are also included in the draft chapter.

The final sections of the proposed chapter would create a policy to review and integrate the city’s coastal management plans and policies with nearby jurisdictions such as Santa Cruz County, the city of Capitola and the Santa Cruz Port District “to create partnerships to implement beach management planning and maintain continued seamless, safe public access and healthy beach ecosystems.”

The city’s summary of the chapter points out that the “Beaches and Bluffs” is one of six total updates planned for the Local Coastal Program, with the other draft chapter updates likely rolling out for public review in 2026.

To read the chapter and provide feedback, visit cityofsantacruz.com.