Opinion ID: 1189801
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Coastal Act's Effect on Preemption

Text: (10) The county, and the California Coastal Commission appearing as amicus curiae, contend that because the county ordinances were required to be approved by the commission as part of the county's local coastal program (see Pub. Resources Code, § 30500 et seq.; Citizens of Goleta Valley v. Board of Supervisors (1990) 52 Cal.3d 553, 570 [276 Cal. Rptr. 410, 801 P.2d 1161]), the ordinances constituted implementation of the California Coastal Act of 1976 (Pub. Resources Code, § 30000 et seq.) and so cannot be preempted as merely local legislation. The merger provisions themselves, however, spell out their relationship to the Coastal Act. Section 66451.11, subdivision (b)(E) (hereafter section 66451.11(b)(E)) provides that the preemptive merger standards of section 66451.11 do not apply if [w]ithin the coastal zone, ... one or more of the contiguous parcels ... has, prior to July 1, 1981, been identified or designated as being of insufficient size to support residential development [by] either (i) ... the land use plan portion of a local coastal program ..., or (ii) prior to the adoption of a land use plan, ... by formal action of the California Coastal Commission.... (Italics added.) Conversely, any coastal parcel identified after July 1, 1981, in the manner described in section 66451.11(b)(E), as being insufficient for development, remains subject to the preemptive merger standards. As explained in footnote 23, ante, the county does not contend here that plaintiffs' parcel was excluded from the operation of those standards by any such identification prior to July 1, 1981.