Coastal counties will want to take note and review the recently
released draft State
of California Sea Level Rise Guidance: 2024 Science and Policy
Update. This new guidance will be used in development of
Local Coastal Plans and updates, general planning, and bay
planning. The new report replaces the previous 2018 guidance
document that caused considerable challenges to coastal county
planning with an extreme sea level rise scenario and has been
significantly revised based on improved science. Current laws
require the use of “best available science” on sea level rise and
coastal impacts which can be obtained from many sources, but
often will default to the current California Sea Level Rise
guidance document. The guidance is updated every five years and
is based on both local and global estimates for sea level rise.
As counties have seen, increasingly strong storm conditions
paired with modest sea level rise and king tides have caused
serious damage to coastal zones with accelerated cliff and bluff
erosion, coastal flooding, beach loss, and community damage.
Critical local infrastructure – from storm and sewer systems to
roads and rail – have suffered with changing climate and extreme
weather systems. These combined with sea level rise are
challenging to local planning efforts, regional housing starts,
and coastal access for all Californians.
Comments to the draft report are due March 4, 2024 with an
anticipated final adoption at the June 4, 2024 Ocean Protection
Council (OPC) meeting.
The OPC will hold a public webinar and three virtual regional
workshops (registration links below) on the 2024 guidance
document.
CSAC encourages coastal counties to review the guidance and
submit public comments to the Ocean Protection Council directly
to OPC Sea Grant Fellow, Ben Dorfman (Ben.Dorfman@resources.ca.gov)
with the subject line “Sea Level Rise Guidance – Public
Comment”. CSAC would appreciate a copy of these public
comments for our continued advocacy efforts.
Please contact Catherine Freeman, CSAC Senior Legislative
Advocate at cfreeman@counties.org with
questions and to copy any public comments submitted to the OPC.
