CHULA VISTA — Climate change earned another acknowledgement this month as the California Coastal Commission unanimously approved on Aug. 12 a policy guidance document to address sea level rise up and down the state’s coast.
The commission formally approved a comprehensive document officially referred to as “Sea Level Rise Policy Guidance: Interpretive Guidelines for Addressing Sea Level Rise in Local Coastal Programs and Coastal Development Permits.”
Coastal Commission Executive Director Charles Lester said sea level rise could happen soon or occur much later, but adopting a policy guidance document would help keep options open and help local and state leaders to adapt to any future event.
“What we do now with documents like this and our plans in this decade is really going to set the choices for future generations,” Lester said. “We’re going to be thinking about the options we have now in ways that will determine what we can do later, 10, 20, 50, 100 years from now.”
State officials and commission staff spent nearly two years crafting the policy guidance document, which falls short of being a regulatory scheme but instead aims to provide government agencies with recommendations of how best to address potential sea level rise.
Commissioner Mary Shallenberger said the...
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