On Jan 25, 2024, Pacifica's Environmental Family hosted an educational program on "The People's Law:  The Coastal Act and the California Coastal Commission."  We're so appreciative to Dr. Charles Lester, director of the Ocean and Coastal Policy Center in the Marine Science Institute at UC Santa Barbara, who previously worked for the California Coastal Commission for twenty years, including serving as the agency's fourth executive director from 2011 to 2016, who came to Pacifica to share his deep expertise on the history of the law, benefits and achievements it's provided for coastal access and habitat, and thoughts on visionary planning approaches for the future as we deal with the climate crisis, sea level rise, and erosion.  View the program by clicking the link below.    

Below are a few resources for you to explore on your own:

• Mission of the California Coastal Commission  

• History of the California Coastal Commission
  (on the 50 year anniversary of The People's Law).  Additional links are on this page to interviews, oral histories, and a short documentary.  

• Who Owns the Beach, a brief overview of the Public Trust Doctrine
   

• The Forty-Year-Old Statute:  Unintended Consequences of the Coastal Act and How They Might be Redressed.  With a focus on the ongoing discussion of the use of the term "existing".  

• The Past, Present and Future of California's Coastal Act, report on the 2016 symposium.