Meeting Overview
The Commission touched down in San Diego June 10-11 with a need for speed, quickly clearing a two-day agenda instead of the usual three. They earned a Pro-Coast vote via approval of San Diego County's interim fix for the transborder sewage fumes that have plagued south San Diego communities for years. The project extends two pipe culverts at the Saturn Boulevard crossing of the Tijuana River to reduce aerosolized hydrogen sulfide and other toxic pollutants.
On Wednesday, San Diego Parks and Rec staff joined the all-volunteer San Diego Seal Society for an informational update on the sea lions at La Jolla Cove. For years, the Society's docents have shielded pupping sea lions from selfie-seeking tourists who crowd the animals and risk driving mothers from their pups. Pinnipeds and humanoids alike owe the volunteer docents a debt of gratitude.
The Commission also approved a suite of beach and bay parking updates in the City of San Diego, including new 4-hour limits at two Ocean Beach lots near the pier to improve safety and circulation. Because the permit formalized hours the City had already changed at several lots without a CDP, the Commission required mitigation for the Coastal Act violations. That mitigation includes new bike parking facilities, mobility mats, wayfinding and interpretative signage at multiple locations. It also includes a commitment to restore the broken access stairway to South Casa Beach in La Jolla. With no opposition from residents, the item moved to consent.
On Thursday, the Commission approved an application from Goldenvoice (the Coachella folks) and the City of Santa Monica for a two-day beachfront music festival just south of the pier. The event will close off public access to an approximately 20 acre stretch of beach, but the Commission secured an impressive community benefits package in return: free tickets for underserved communities, ocean safety programming, and cultural activations. The terms also direct some of the festival's profits toward long-term fixes for visitor-serving beach infrastructure (see Other Discussions for a deeper dive).
Issues voted on at this meeting:
The Commission unanimously approved the County of San Diego’s application to extend two pipe culverts at the Saturn Boulevard crossing of the Tijuana River. The project will redirect contaminated river flows so they are released below the river's surface during low flow conditions, rather than freefalling six feet into the channel and generating the turbulence that drives toxic off-gassing.
Other Discussions
Surfrider Group Presentation: San Clemente Railroad Armoring
During Thursday's general comments, Surfrider representatives updated Commissioners on the Orange County Transportation Authority's (OCTA) efforts to armor San Clemente's coastline to protect its rail line. Surfrider recently commissioned independent coastal scientist Bob Battalio to study the impacts of OCTA's emergency armoring, which has already destroyed the beach between San Clemente and Trestles, and its plans to keep armoring northward into the southern half of San Clemente State Beach. The report examines the long-term impacts of those proposals alongside the feasibility of nature-based alternatives that could preserve both the beach and the railroad for now. But preserving San Clemente's southern beaches over the long term will ultimately mean relocating the railroad as seas rise and erosion worsens.
Program Spotlight, Access Spotlight
As part of its ongoing celebration of the Coastal Act's 50th anniversary, the Commission highlighted its work protecting coastal habitat through permanent land conservation. Its tools range from deed restrictions and conservation easements to LCP zoning and enforcement action. We recommend Sydney Schmitter's presentation, which walks through how the Commission has conserved nearly 12,000 acres through its offer-to-dedicate program. In many cases smaller easements accumulate over the years into something greater than the sum of its parts. At Batiquitos Lagoon in Carlsbad, for instance, six separate development permits over time added up to more than 113 acres of conserved habitat that also includes a locally-prized public access trail.
Staff also highlighted the public accessway to Whispering Sands beach in La Jolla, required through a CDP for a condominium complex there in 1974. It was the third vertical accessway the Commission ever secured this way.
Santa Monica Music Festival — Commission Approves with Conditions
Summary
The Commission unanimously approved a coastal development permit for a two-day ticketed music festival on Santa Monica State Beach, proposed by Goldenvoice LLC and the City of Santa Monica as co-applicants. The festival, scheduled for a non-holiday weekend in late September 2026, will draw up to 35,000 attendees per day to the Sandbox area south of the Santa Monica Pier, enclosing roughly 900,000 square feet of public beach across a 15-day setup, event, and breakdown period.
Staff recommended approval with conditions addressing public access, community benefits, coastal wildlife and habitat, water quality, and transportation. Key conditions include a prohibition on single-use plastic foodware and packaging, a requirement that complimentary shuttle service be available to beachgoers as well as ticketholders, and a robust Community Benefits Program providing free coastal access and recreation programming to underserved communities across greater Los Angeles. The paid festival cannot proceed unless the free community benefit elements are confirmed as committed to go forward.
Why You Should Care
This permit matters beyond the concert itself. AB 1740 (Zbur), as originally written, would have allowed the City of Santa Monica to self-certify an event like this one without Commission review. That exemption has since been removed from the bill, and this application shows exactly why it had to be. The entire standard would have been whether the event "unduly obstructs" public beach access and traversal of the shoreline. That's it. And the City, which is a co-applicant that negotiated the license fee and profits from the event, would have been certifying its own financial interest with no independent check.
Here’s what independent review delivered. Commission staff secured mitigation for acknowledged impacts to public beach access, environmental conditions protecting water quality and coastal wildlife, a prohibition on single-use plastics, and a Community Benefits Program with a genuine environmental justice focus. None of that is guaranteed under local permitting. The Coastal Act does not rest on any one city being well-intentioned at any given moment — it exists because California's coastal resources are consistently threatened by exactly the kind of local financial and political pressures visible right here. This approval is a demonstration of why that independent layer of review matters, and why proposals to exempt entire categories of coastal development from it deserve serious scrutiny.
June Report Now Live
The Commission touched down in San Diego June 10-11 with a need for speed, clearing a two-day agenda instead of the usual three. They earned a Pro-Coast vote via approval of San Diego County's interim fix for the transborder sewage fumes that have plagued south San Diego communities for years.