A state bill that once threatened to strip the California Coastal Commission of significant permitting authority over Santa Monica has been fundamentally rewritten into a narrower measure designed to hold the commission accountable to a defined timeline for certifying the city’s long-delayed Local Coastal Program (LCP).
Assembly Bill 1740, authored by Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-51st District), now requires Santa Monica to submit a complete proposed LCP to the commission by Jan. 1, 2029. Under the amended version of the bill, the commission must act on that submission within six months of receipt, provide the city a written list of any identified issues within 45 days, and — if it fails to act on the complete proposal within six months — submit quarterly written updates to the Legislature explaining the delay.
The Coastal Commission, which had opposed earlier versions of the bill, is now expected to formally recommend support when commissioners convene in July.
“I’m very proud that this bill has resulted in something that I think is going to result in a very positive thing for the city of Santa Monica, which is an approved LCP,” Zbur said. “I have a high degree of confidence that this is going to lead to an LCP within a short period of time.”
What the Current Bill Does
The version of AB 1740 proposed this month retains two substantive components. The first applies specifically to Santa Monica. If the city submits a complete proposed LCP to the commission on or before Dec. 31, 2027 — roughly two years ahead of the statutory deadline — the city would receive priority consideration for funding made available through the state’s Active Transportation Program, which supports bike lanes, pedestrian paths, safe-routes-to-school improvements, education campaigns, and quick-build projects.
A financial accountability mechanism added in the latest amendments provides that if the commission fails to act on Santa Monica’s complete LCP submission within six months of receipt, the commission shall reimburse the city for reasonable costs associated with coordinating on any suggested modifications.
The second component applies statewide and operates independently of the Santa Monica LCP process. It amends Section 30610.91 of the Public Resources Code to create an expedited review pathway for proposals that convert existing road right-of-way into bicycle, transit, or pedestrian infrastructure. Under the revised provision, the Coastal Commission’s executive director may waive the coastal development permit requirement for such projects if the director determines that, on balance, the project provides commensurate or enhanced public access to the coast. Parking replacement is no longer an automatic requirement — a significant shift from current practice, under which the loss of parking spaces near beaches has historically complicated or blocked bike lane approvals.
That statewide provision is set to expire Dec. 31, 2032.
A Bill Transformed
The current legislation is a substantially different document from the one Zbur introduced in February. The original bill created broad exemptions from coastal development permit requirements for an array of project types — including multifamily housing, building renovations, outdoor dining, temporary events, and parking changes — and applied those exemptions across more than a dozen coastal cities meeting specific urbanization criteria.
Subsequent amendments narrowed the bill’s geographic scope to Santa Monica alone, a change that drew criticism from environmental groups and some residents who argued the revision transformed a policy proposal into a targeted carve-out. Amendments in May stripped out the housing and commercial permit exemptions entirely, leaving behind the LCP accountability structure and the statewide bike infrastructure provision.
The proposed June amendments strike the bill’s original findings and declarations section, which had argued that the Coastal Act’s nearly 50-year-old permitting framework was poorly suited to dense, transit-rich urban communities. That framing, and the statutory architecture that accompanied it, is gone from the current version.
Zbur acknowledged the bill’s evolution was not strictly linear but that as Santa Monica was one of a handful of cities that lacked local control over its coastal development, the end result met the needs of the city.
“What we were trying to do was something that was more systemic to benefit cities that were like Santa Monica that were facing these kinds of challenges, either because they didn’t have a local coastal program, or because they did have a local coastal program and the process to get it amended is so difficult,” he said.
Santa Monica Mayor Caroline Torosis said the current bill is a huge win for the city.
“We appreciate Assembly Member Zbur for really looking out for the best interest of Santa Monica here, as well as really for the rest of the state,” she said. “But for us, having an approved LCP is really critical, and to the extent that is the outcome of this process, I am really delighted that we’re able to do something that has never been done before in our city and do something that is really unprecedented, where the Coastal Commission has actually entered into this [Memorandum of Understanding] with us, and had it not been for this bill, I don’t feel that we would have gotten to this point, so I think all in all, this is a good outcome for the city.”
What the City Gets
For Santa Monica, the practical stakes of a certified LCP go well beyond the bill itself. Torosis pointed to the LCP as essential infrastructure for the city’s broader economic recovery efforts under its Realignment Plan. A certified program would transfer day-to-day coastal development permitting authority from the state commission to the city, allowing local planners to review projects against locally adopted coastal policies without requiring applicants to obtain a separate state permit.
Torosis said the outcome exceeded what the city had anticipated when it first aligned with the bill.
“Now we’re in a really great communication with the Coastal Commission to actually get the thing that we needed all along, which was the LCP,” she said. “That continues to give local control back to Santa Monica to figure out what really makes the most sense for our city.”
A Decades-Long Pursuit
Santa Monica’s effort to secure a certified LCP has a history that predates most of the elected officials now working to complete it. The city received Coastal Commission approval for a Land Use Plan in 1992 — the document that still serves as the commission’s standard of review for coastal permits in the city today. The accompanying Implementation Plan, which functions as the coastal zoning ordinance and is required for full LCP certification, was never approved.
The city began a new LCP process in 2014, conducting years of community outreach. The City Council adopted a revised Land Use Plan in October 2018 and submitted it to the commission, but the submission was eventually withdrawn before the commission acted on it.
The city formally resumed the update process in May 2023. In May 2026 following the introduction of AB1740, the City Council voted unanimously to direct staff to negotiate a memorandum of understanding with the commission establishing a defined path to certification, with a target of completing both the Land Use Plan and Implementation Plan by June 2027.
City staff warned the council that apparent breakthroughs with the commission had not always materialized in the past, noting the gap between staff-level alignment and action by commissioners themselves at a public hearing.
Torosis said she believes this time is different.
“We have all the parties here rowing in the same direction,” she said. “Our community development director has been through this entire process, and no one has ever seen the great working relationship that we currently have before now.”
editor@smdp.com