HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-09-25; Local Coastal Program Update -Coastal Commission Review Status (Districts -All); Barberio, GaryTo the members of the:
CITY COUNCIL
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September 25, 2025
Council Memorandum
To:
From:
Honorable Mayor Blackburn and Members of the City Council
Gary Barberio, Deputy City Manager, Community Services
Via:
Jeff Murphy, Community Development ~/~ctoJ
Sheila Cobian, Assistant City Manager ~
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Carlsbad
Memo ID# 2025056
Re: Local Coastal Program Update -Coastal Commission Review Status (Districts -All)
This memorandum is an update to the City Councill memorandum dated November 2, 2023,
which provided a status of the city's comprehensive update to its Local Coastal Program (LCP)
that was approved by the City Council in 2021.
Background
The City Council approved on October 12, 2021, a comprehensive update to the city's LCP
(Attachment A), which was subsequently submitted to the Coastal Commission in
December 2021 for approval. Under state law, and with a one-year time extension granted in
August 2022, the Coastal Commission had until August 2023 to act on the city's application. In
May 2023, Coastal Commission staff informed the city that they would not be able to complete
their review before August 2023, and therefore requested the city withdraw the application to
provide them with more time to review and comment. The city agreed to this request and
withdrew the LCP update application in June 2023 (Attachment B).
While the Coastal Commission staff committed, as part of the city's withdrawal, to provide the
city with all outstanding comments within the following two months, all remaining comments
(over 200 in total) were not received until May 2024, roughly 11 months later. Since then, city
staff have reviewed, evaluated and held informal discussions on the comments with Coastal
Commission staff in an effort to work out a compromise.
Discussion
City staff evaluated and categorized the comments provided by the Coastal Commission staff on
a scale from "easy" to "challenging" resolution. The topics with the widest disagreement
included policies affecting environmentally sensitive habitat, sea level rise, lower-cost visitor
accommodations, scenic resources, environmental justice, and water quality.
As stated in the 2023 Council Memorandum (Attachment B), because there was such
disagreement between the city and Coastal Commission staff on key policy issues, city staff
anticipated that a presentation to City Council would be necessary to discuss the discrepancies
and seek further direction.
Community Services Branch
Community Development Department
1635 Faraday Avenue I Carlsbad, CA 92008 I 442-339-5088 t
Council Memo -Local Coastal Program Update -Coastal Commission Review Status
September 25, 2025
Page 2
However, over the past six months Coastal Commission staff have expressed flexibility in their
position and a willingness to compromise on key policy issues, and city staff are optimistic that
with further meetings and discussion staff will be able to resolve the differences to a level of
mutual agreement.
Given the progress achieved to date, city staff intend to restart the official Coastal Commission
approval process by resubmitting the LCP update application to the Coastal Commission next
month (October 2025). State law requires that an application to amend a LCP must be submitted
to the Coastal Commission within four years of the last public hearing on the amendment, which
in the case of the LCP update was City Council's approval of the update on October 12, 2021. As
such, the city must submit (resubmit) the LCP update by October 12, 2025, to continue the
processing of the LCP amendment.
Next Steps
After the city resubmits the LCP update, Coastal Commission staff will follow state law timing
requirements for processing an LCP amendment application. Like the last submittal, state law
provides the ability for the Coastal Commission to grant a one-year time extension on the
processing time; city staff anticipate that Coastal Commission action on the LCP update may
occur approximately 18 months after resubmittal. During that time, city staff will continue to
coordinate with the Coastal Commission's staff to find resolutions to all of their comments on
the LCP update.
City staff will continue to provide LCP status updates to the City Council via Council
Memorandum.
Attachment:
A. City Council staff report dated October 12, 2021 (on file with the City Clerk's Office)
B. Council Memorandum dated November 2, 2023 (on file with the City Clerk's Office)
cc: Geoff Patnoe, City Manager
Cindie McMahon, City Attorney
Dalton Sorich, Assistant City Attorney
Mike Strong, Assistant Community Development Director
Eric Lardy, City Planner
Robert Efird, Principal Planner
Jennifer Jesser, Senior Planner