California has been actively managing its coast for more than 50 years. Voters passed the Coastal Initiative (Prop 20) in 1972, and the legislature passed the California Coastal Act in 1976. The Act established a broad set of coastal resource management policies for the state, including policies to protect maximum public access to and along the shoreline, protect sensitive marine and coastal habitats, and assure that coastal-dependent and related land uses were prioritized. The Coastal Act also established a permit requirement for coastal development, and a unique planning partnership between the state and local governments, whereby local governments would implement these state policies through local land use plans and zoning ordinances. The Act also created the California Coastal Commission to implement the new state program. The first California coastal management agency was the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, created in 1965 to address on-going fill of bay waters. The State Coastal Conservancy was created in 1976 also, to support coastal management through funding of coastal access and restoration projects. Together, the three agencies are the foundation of the California Coastal Management Program.
California's coastal program is also part of the national Coastal Zone Management Program, established under the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 and implemented by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The California Coastal Management Program (CCMP) was approved by the federal government in 1978. In addition to providing important federal financial support to the state, the approval of the CCMP bestowed "federal consistency review" authority to the state, which allows California to review federal activities (like harbor dredging or beach replenishment) and federally-approved activities (such offshore oil exploration and development on the outer continental shelf), for consistency with the policies of the CCMP.
The CCMP is recognized as one of the most successful coastal management programs in the world. This Coastal Brief summarizes some of the primary successes of the CCMP:
More detailed discussion of California coastal management may be found in this article in the Journal of Coastal Research.