From:Jim Buttery
To:City Council
Cc:Scot Graham
Subject:May 21, 2024 Council Meeting Agenda Item 12A
Date:Sunday, May 19, 2024 12:09:30 PM
External Email
Agenda Item #12A
Re; Status Update on General Plan and Local Coastal Program First I want to thank the Mayor, members of the Council for postponing consideration of the Updated General Plan/Local Coastal Program last January when community members realized the potential impact on them. Second, I want to thank Scot Graham and member of the City’s Planning Department for initiating conversations with Coastal Commission trying to find a way out of an apparent impasse. However, I also want to clarify a few issues at least from my point of view.
1. If there were numerous community workshops, study sessions and public meetingsaddressing bluff top protection between 2019 and 2023, I was not aware of them norof any effort being made to inform the owners of bluff top properties of what the Citywas doing and how it could affect them.2. Staff Report fails to mention the Sea Level Rise Adaptation Plan dated May 2020 thatthe City adopted that favors “managed retreat” while acknowledging that most ofthe city’s downtown and bluffs to the north are already developed and havehistorically used “hard protection.” Even though it was adopted, that AdaptationPlan was flawed because it did not inventory the bluffs, the location of pocketbeaches, and areas where “managed retreat” might be a successful strategy. Itrecognized a need to inventory the coastline but for whatever reason that was notdone before the Local Coastal Program was approved by the Planning Commissionlast year and put on the Council’s agenda. I am very glad to see that conducting aninventory of the City’s coast will now be a first priority.3. While staff from the Coastal Commission may have represented to City staff awillingness to negotiate with the City on “hard vs. soft” shoreline protective devices, the letter of May 10th is noticeably silent on this point. The Coastal Commission’s letter of May 10th simply agrees to allow the Safety Element of the General PlanUpdate/Local Coastal Program to be considered at a later date while the remainingelements continue to be processed.4. I am hopeful that once an inventory of our City’s shoreline neighborhoods iscompleted that there will be meaningful negotiations on the fine points of the SafetyElement, but in those negotiations who will be speaking for the “stakeholders”identified in the Staff Report? Is it staff? An ad hoc committee of residents and staff?Or some other persons or group? If negotiations are intended AND we want to meetthe 12-18 month time estimate for completion of the Safety Element, then theCouncil must decide quickly how the stakeholders will be engaged in the process? Thank you in advance for considering my comments
Jim Buttery
323 Indio Drive,
Pismo Beach CA
Jim