If you are buying, selling, remodeling or building anywhere near the water in the South Bay, the California Coastal Commission is the agency most likely to change your timeline and least likely to have been explained to you properly. This page is the plain version: what it is, where it applies, when it gets involved, and what that does to a transaction.
What is the California Coastal Commission?
The California Coastal Commission is a state agency created by voters in 1972 through Proposition 20, the California Coastal Zone Conservation Initiative, and made permanent by the California Coastal Act of 1976. The Coastal Act remains the primary law governing its decisions. The Commission has twelve voting members, appointed by the Governor, the Senate Rules Committee and the Speaker of the Assembly.
Its job, in one line, is to regulate development in the coastal zone against the policies in Chapter 3 of the Coastal Act, which cover public access, marine resources, hazards, visual resources and development intensity.
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What counts as development in the coastal zone?
Far more than most owners assume. The Coastal Act defines development broadly. It covers the obvious, such as constructing a building, and it also covers changes in the intensity of use of land or water, even where no construction is involved at all.
That definition is the source of most surprises. A project that requires no building permit can still require a coastal development permit, because the question is not whether you are building, it is whether you are changing what happens on the site.
Who issues the permit, the city or the Commission?
It depends on whether the city has a certified Local Coastal Program, and in the South Bay beach cities the answer is generally yes.
Once the Commission certifies a city’s Local Coastal Program, most coastal development permit authority is delegated to that city. Manhattan Beach’s Local Coastal Program was certified on 12 May 1994. So a Manhattan Beach coastal zone applicant applies to Manhattan Beach, not to a state agency in another county. That is a real advantage, and it is why permitting here is more predictable than in jurisdictions without a certified program.
Delegation is not removal. The Commission keeps two powers permanently:
| Power retained | What it covers | Why it matters locally |
|---|---|---|
| Original permit jurisdiction | Certain specified lands, including tidelands and public trust lands | Applies on the seaward side, where the beach itself is involved |
| Appellate authority | Specified categories of development approved by the local government | Includes development between the sea and the first public road, which describes most beachfront property |
The practical translation: a city approval is the first decision, not always the final one.
What triggers an appeal to the Commission?
Appeals apply to defined categories of local decisions rather than to every permit. The category that matters most in the beach cities is development located between the sea and the first public road paralleling the sea. On The Strand and the blocks immediately behind it, that covers a great deal.
Two features of the appeal process are worth knowing before you plan around it. In most cases there is no fee to file an appeal, which means the cost of challenging a project is low for the challenger. And the Commission publishes a waiver form for the 49 day rule governing its action on an appeal of a local government’s final decision, which tells you something about how the timeline can stretch.
Los Angeles County is split between two Commission district offices. The South Bay falls under the South Los Angeles district, covering Pacific Palisades and south.
How long does it take?
There is no single honest number, and anyone who gives you one is guessing. What can be said accurately is where the time goes:
- City review of the coastal development permit, running alongside or after the normal planning review.
- The appeal window after the local decision, during which the project is not final.
- Commission scheduling, if an appeal is filed. The Commission meets monthly and moves between locations around the state.
- Conditions, which can be attached at either level and can require design changes after you thought you were finished.
The sequence, not the total, is what you plan around. A project that is appealed is not a project that has failed. It is a project whose schedule now belongs to a monthly state calendar rather than a city one.
How does this affect a purchase or a sale?
For buyers, the question to ask before removing contingencies is not whether the property is in the coastal zone, it is what you intend to do with it and whether that intent requires a coastal development permit. A house you plan to live in as it stands raises very few coastal issues. The same house with a second story, an ADU, a new footprint or a change of use raises several.
For sellers, the relevant issue is usually the reverse: whether past work on the property was properly permitted. Unpermitted work in the coastal zone is a different problem from unpermitted work elsewhere, because a second agency has an interest in it and because the Commission has its own enforcement authority.
For anyone planning an accessory dwelling unit, there is a live wrinkle in 2026. Manhattan Beach adopted amendments to its Local Coastal Program on 1 April 2025 by Ordinance 25-0004, including a new chapter on accessory dwelling units, and further amendments on 2 December 2025 by Ordinance 25-0013. The City states that these amendments are pending certification from the California Coastal Commission and are not yet effective. A rule the City has adopted is not necessarily a rule that governs your coastal zone property yet.
How do you find out where you stand?
Three steps, in order, and none of them cost anything.
- Confirm whether the property is in the coastal zone. Manhattan Beach publishes an interactive map and a zoning map showing area districts, zoning districts and the coastal zone. The GIS parcel report will give you the zoning and parcel data for a specific address.
- Ask the city what your project requires. Manhattan Beach Planning offers walk in hours Monday through Friday and can be reached at (310) 802-5520 or [email protected]. Ask specifically whether your project needs a coastal development permit and whether it falls in an appealable category.
- Check that you are reading the current code. The City has stated that several recently adopted ordinances are not yet reflected on its published Municipal Code pages, and posts the current chapters separately. A downloaded PDF can be out of date within a year.
If you are weighing a coastal zone property and want to understand the permitting position before you commit, we will run that groundwork with you. It is considerably cheaper to learn this before an offer than after.
This page is general information about a regulatory process, not legal advice and not a determination for any specific property. Coastal Act requirements, Local Coastal Program status and city ordinances change, and Manhattan Beach has amendments pending certification as of this writing. Details were verified against California Coastal Commission and City of Manhattan Beach sources in September 2026. Confirm the position for a specific address with the city and, where appropriate, with the Commission’s South Los Angeles district office.
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