The California Coastal Commission delayed a vote yesterday on a contentious section of the county’s proposed Local Coastal Program related to environmental hazards, deeming the issue too unresolved to vote on. Though the commission approved the bulk of its staff’s changes to the rest of the submittal, it adopted two key changes advocated for by the county and farmers and ranchers during a lengthy public comment session at a six-hour hearing in Half Moon Bay. One unanimously adopted change deleted a reference to “existing legally established agriculture production.” The phrase made some balk, worrying it could end up deeming illegal operations that have, in past decades, changed the type of agriculture they engaged in.
The other change, approved 9-1 after a long discussion that attempted to clarify current and proposed rules for agricultural permitting, eliminated the reference to the conversion of grazing to row crops as a blanket trigger for a coastal development permit. The Light will publish a full report of the meeting next week.