Hello All,

As I am sure you are all aware by now, last week the Coastal Commission approved Monterey County’s Coastal Ordinance. This is obviously extremely good news. However, there are still a few more steps that need to be taken by the County before the Ordinance goes into effect. Note, some lobbyists are telling clients the Coastal Ordinance is in effect now. That is NOT accurate.

The County still needs to go through the formal adoption process to approve the ordinance, including a formal hearing and vote by the Board of Supervisors. This hearing is currently scheduled for the March 13^th Board of Supervisors meeting. After the Board formally adopts the Coastal Ordinance, it must then go back to the Coastal Commission for final certification.

Based on this timeline, it appears as if the Coastal Ordinance may go into effect sometime in April at the earliest, depending on how long it takes for the Coastal Commission to conduct their final review/approval. Once that is completed, the County can accept your full permit applications.

So, we recommend starting on those now with our office so we are as far along as possible (hopefully complete) by the time April/May rolls around.

As always, we will continue to keep you posted with any new developments, and please feel free to reach out to us with any questions.

Thank you. Todd Winter, WINTER LLP.