Coastal Commission Coming to Town

The California Coastal Commission will meet in Watsonville in August, local leaders confirmed Wednesday.

The three-day meeting will mark the first time in the history of the Coastal Commission that the state agency charged with managing the California coast and ocean has met in Watsonville, according to City Manager Carlos Palacios.

"It's kind of a big deal," Watsonville Mayor Daniel Dodge said.

The commission is a independent, quasi-judicial state agency created by voter initiative in 1976. Today, the organization aims to protect, conserve, restore and enhance environmental and human-based resources on the state's coastline.

Santa Cruz County Supervisor Mark Stone is one of 12 members of the commission.

"I think that it is important for the commissioners and the public to see all parts of Santa Cruz County and get a sense for the geography and coastal resources here," Stone said. "It will help put in context any decision that the commission may face in the future."

The commission meets monthly in various locations across the state. This month's meeting will be March 9-11 in Santa Cruz.

The Coastal Commission also met in Santa Cruz in March and May of last year, but prior to that, the agency hadn't had a meeting in Santa Cruz County in 26 years, according to Stone.

The Watsonville meeting is slated for Aug. 10-12 and will be held in the City Council Chambers, Dodge said. He added that the Coastal Commission "heard about our facilities," and members are excited to check out the state-of-the-art council chambers, built in 2008.

Stone noted there are no Watsonville-specific topics on the agenda at this point. However, "there may be other issues that are important to our area that will be heard then. We try to schedule important matters as close to the area as possible," Stone said.

Possible future topics for the commission that would be relevant to the Central Coast include dredging at the Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbor and the Caltrans High-Speed Rail project.

The three-day meeting is open to the public.