ShorelineMarina Highlights 2010 0217

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Shoreline CAC February 17, 2010 Meeting Highlights Page 12 BCDC is both an environmental protection agency and an economic development agency. It tries to balance these two objectives and reach sound policy decisions for shoreline development and usage. The decision makers are compromised of a 27- member Commission, including nine elected officials that represent local counties; nine appointed by the Governor and Legislature; and nine people from local, federal and state agencies that also have some control over the Bay. Permitting projects is one component of BCDC's work. It has a staff of 32 which manages approximately 1,600 square miles of bay. San Francisco Bay is one of the most urbanized estuaries in the world. It and the adjoining delta, comprise the largest estuary on the west coast of the North and South American continents. BCDC has jurisdiction over two areas: all the water -covered areas of the Bay, including all the tidal marshes, and smaller creeks and sloughs flowing into the Bay and around the edge of the Bay; and a 100-foot-wide band, measured back from the shoreline. Its goals and policies on fill are as follows: Three Primary Goals 1. Prevent unnecessary fill in the bay 2. Maximize public access to and along the shoreline 3. Plan for future Fill in the Bay can be approved only for: 1. Water -oriented uses 2. Minor fill for public access 3. Minor fill to improve shoreline appearance The Bay is shallow, on average about 11 meters deep. Much of San Pablo Bay, Suisun Bay, and the South Bay are very shallow; about 3.5 meters deep; thus the Bay is very easy to build on. By the 1950s, a third of the Bay was gone due to filling for development along the shoreline. Between 1850 and 1960 two square miles were filled every year. In 1959, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported that 60% of the remaining Bay, another 325 square miles, could be reclaimed with landfill projects. Citizens revolted. Under the leadership of three East Bay women, in 1965 the citizens of the Bay Area convinced the California Legislature to create BCDC to stop the Bay from continuing to get smaller. Although the Legislature didn't know it at the time, they had created the nation's first state coastal management agency. To maximize public access, the McAteer-Petris Act was adopted and states that: "...existing public access to the shoreline and waters of the San Francisco Bay is inadequate and that maximum feasible public access, consistent with a proposed project, should be provided." BCDC's San Francisco Bay Plan policies on public access state that: "Maximum feasible public access should be provided in and through every new development in the