Bill
AB 2051
Creates a cross-agency Coastal Resilience Permitting Working Group to speed coastal project approvals via a Roadmap, while preserving protections.
Purpose and main aim
- AB 2051 would create a structured, multi-agency process to improve the timeliness and efficiency of environmental permitting for coastal resilience projects. It establishes a formal Coastal Resilience Permitting Working Group and directs development of a Roadmap outlining administrative reforms and potential legislative changes to accelerate approvals while maintaining environmental protections.
Key provisions and changes
1) Establishment of a Coastal Resilience Permitting Working Group
- Organizer: Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, in consultation with the Secretary for Environmental Protection.
- Purpose: Develop a Coastal Resilience Permitting Roadmap for projects along the California coast and in the San Francisco Bay, including areas adjacent to state and federal waters.
- Composition: Representatives from federal, state, and local agencies, including (but not limited to):
- California Coastal Commission
- California Environmental Protection Agency
- California Regional Water Quality Control Boards (San Francisco Bay, North Coast, Central Coast)
- Department of Fish and Wildlife
- Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation
- Natural Resources Agency
- Ocean Protection Council
- San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission
- State Coastal Conservancy
- State Historical Resources Commission
- State Lands Commission
- State Office of Historic Preservation
- State Water Resources Control Board
2) Coastal Resilience Roadmap (due by January 1, 2028)
- The Working Group must prepare a Roadmap with recommendations to improve permit issuance timelines and enable efficient approvals for coastal resilience projects.
- Submission: The Roadmap must be submitted to the Governor and the relevant fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature, in compliance with Government Code standards.
- Operative window: The roadmap process is set to become inoperative on January 1, 2032, unless extended or amended.
3) Coastal Resilience Permit Advisory Group (early preparatory work)
- Timeline: By April 1, 2027, the Secretary, in collaboration with key commissions and the Department of Fish and Wildlife, and with the San Francisco Bay RWQCBs, shall convene a Coastal Resilience Permit Advisory Group to support deliberations.
- Members: Includes transportation and port agencies, local governments, ports, local transportation and wastewater agencies, California Native American tribes on the Native American Heritage Commission list, and other public stakeholders (businesses, housing builders, fishers, environmental and environmental-justice groups, etc.).
4) Public engagement and workshops
- The Secretary, with the Advisory Group, will conduct a series of public workshops to:
- Gather feedback on permitting challenges and streamlining proposals
- Review draft reform proposals from the Working Group
5) Definitions and scope
- A “coastal resilience project” is defined as a project that maintains, protects, restores, or enables coastal ecosystems, infrastructure, or communities to withstand and adapt to sea level rise and climate-change–driven hazards.
6) Interim and related reforms (roadmap content)
- The Roadmap must address a comprehensive set of potential reforms, including:
- Administrative reforms to streamline completeness determinations, limit information requests, and set timelines for reviews
- Unified statewide or regional permit applications and interagency reviews
- Interagency project management teams for multiagency permitting
- Standardized compensatory mitigation, including potential use of engineering-with-nature approaches and a de minimis fill policy
- Delegation of permit issuance to executive officers or use of consent calendars where appropriate
- Expanded use of regional general permits and programmatic agreements for known coastal resilience project categories
- Earlier permit approvals during design or preconstruction phases, with allowance for design changes
- Standardized mitigation measures for pile driving and fill placement
- Streamlining alignment with local sea level rise adaptation plans
- Project-based permit streamlining
- A framework for in-lieu fees or advance mitigation to fund restoration/mitigation initiatives
- Legislative reforms to accelerate permitting, addressing regulatory gaps and potential maladaptation
- Possible coastal resilience project pilot programs, and evaluation of consolidated coastal resilience permits similar to offshore-wind permitting divisions
- Workforce assessment and funding options for regulatory staffing and permitting support
Potential impacts and who is affected
Procedural and timeline notes
Overall, AB 2051 seeks to institutionalize cross-agency collaboration for coastal resilience permitting, produce a concrete Roadmap for reforms, and involve stakeholders through advisory groups and public workshops, all while preserving environmental protections.
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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