Keep California's Coast for Everyone!

California's coastline belongs to all Californians, not just those wealthy enough to live near it. For 50 years, the California Coastal Act has guaranteed every resident the right to reach and enjoy our public shores. AB 1740 would gut those protections in ways unseen since the Act was passed in 1976.

Under the guise of promoting bike lanes and transit, AB 1740 creates a sweeping new loophole — the "urban multimodal community" designation — that would exempt cities from the Coastal Development Permit process with almost no scrutiny. Any city with a bus stop, a bike lane, and a greenhouse gas plan can apply, and approval is essentially automatic: if the state doesn't reject the application within 30 days, the city is in.

The consequences are severe. The bill would allow immediate removal of coastal parking along Pacific Coast Highway — with no replacement requirement — cutting off beach access for inland families who have no other way to get there. It would enable preferential parking for coastal residents, unlimited fee hikes with no cap or public appeal, and luxury development up to 150% of original building footprints — all exempt from environmental review, sea level rise analysis, and public comment.

This is the largest rollback of coastal protections in a generation, and it cuts the public out of the process entirely.

The bill's primary beneficiary is Santa Monica — one of only 12 coastal cities that hasn't completed its Local Coastal Program, despite receiving $375,000 in state grants to do so. The straightforward fix already exists: Complete the process the other 64 coastal jurisdictions have done.

Keep California's Coast for Everyone is calling on lawmakers to reject AB 1740 and protect our constitutional right to California's shared coastline — for all people.