CPOA
Subject: AB 1129 Opposition letter
Dear Coastal Property Owners Association of Santa Cruz County Member,
Please fax the following opposition letter (or a modified version) to both 916-319-2181 and 949-492-0884 to help defeat the anti-seawall bill AB 1129.
Be sure to add the date and your name at the top, in the body and at the end of the letter.
Also please consider a contribution to https://www.coastalrightscoalition.org/ to help fund our lobbyist.
Sincerely,
Keith Adams
President
Coastal Property Owners Association of Santa Cruz County
http://www.coastalpropertyowners.org/
831-479-4200
YOUR NAME
ADDRESS
PHONE NUMBER
May XX, 2017
Via Facsimile (916-319-2181; 949-492-0884)
Honorable Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, Chair
Assembly Appropriations Committee
1020 N Street, Room 2114
Sacramento, CA 95814
RE: AB 1129 (Stone) ““ OPPOSE
Dear Chairwoman Gonzalez Fletcher,
I, NAME, live in CITY, California and I write to respectfully oppose AB 1129 (Stone). This bill would inhibit landowners’ ability to protect their coastal property from inclement weather emergencies and erosion that can threaten their safety and protection. Currently, the Coastal Act promises that homeowners can protect their homes against destruction by the ocean. This bill would remove that promise.
This proposed bill would codify the destruction of beach and cliff front homes destroyed by the forces of nature. The Coastal Commission policy of abandonment and destruction, or “managed retreat,” has long reaching local jurisdiction, economic and environmental impacts. The proposed new standards in AB 1129 would make these policies more stringent and will result in tremendous costs to state and local governments, property owners and infrastructure managers. Furthermore, coastal municipalities will incur significant cost when they have to protect public infrastructure from erosion that is currently protected by privately funded seawalls.
State and local jurisdictions will be required to amend local coastal plans, general plans, zoning ordinances, monitor the loss of housing – in particular low and moderate income housing – amend housing plans, and expend significant amounts of taxpayer dollars to do accomplish these tasks. This bill has significant financial impacts on state and local jurisdictions.
The local and California economies will be severely, negatively impacted by the reduction in housing for all income levels, loss of customers for local businesses, loss of jobs, and loss of tax revenue with an increase in cost for the local jurisdictions and California.
The proposed bill would deprive residents, businesses and local jurisdictions of their due process rights by permitting the Coastal Commission to, in effect, impose fines unilaterally. Under the proposed bill, the Commission would need to grow enforcement staff to pursue unauthorized seawalls and develop a framework to retroactively pursue fines against homeowners that have used coastal protection devices to protect their property. The negative impacts of AB 1129 will be felt by individual homeowners who do not have the economic ability to fight the Coastal Commission or to pay excessive fines.
For these reasons, we ask that you vote “No” on AB 1129 (Stone).
Sincerely,
FIRST NAME LAST NAME
CC: Assemblymember Mark Stone (Facsimile: 916-319-2129)
Assemblymembers, Appropriations Committee
c/o Jennifer Galehouse, Deputy Chief Consultant