The county released a working draft of regulations for development in environmentally hazardous areas—long an area of contention—as part of the ongoing effort to update the 34-year-old Local Coastal Program. The Board of Supervisors will consider the draft rules, which will continue to be tweaked in coming weeks, on April 19, at which point they will be sent to the California Coastal Commission for consideration. (Last fall, supervisors sent a separate section of the update, pertaining to agriculture and many other issues, to the commission.) How to regulate building in hazard areas, such as near bluff tops and shorelines, has provoked debate between county and coastal commission staffs in recent years. The new working draft incorporates some changes in response to public input, said county planning manager Jack Liebster. For instance, the draft stipulates that piers and caissons would not be considered shoreline protection devices—which are often prohibited or strictly regulated—if they are used to raise up homes. The Federal Emergency Management Authority, he said, “is articulating that they want people to raise homes” to avoid incoming water from sea-level rise.” Piers, he went on, allow water to flow under a home. The draft also reduces the time frame for screening coastal permit applications in potentially hazardous areas. In earlier versions, permit applications projected to be in hazardous areas in the next 100 years could be subject to additional costly reports and studies; now that time frame is just 50 years. “We can’t peer 100 years into the future with any degree of accuracy,” Mr. Liebster said. “Looking at the worst-case scenario 100 years into the future and building to that standard today does not seem realistic.” He noted that projections of sea-level rise 100 years out vary widely and that “new technology and conditions will continue to change.” Visit MarinLCP.org to read the working draft and email [email protected] with comments.