Every city changes. The question Santa Monica cannot seem to answer is whether residents still have a meaningful role in directing that change, or whether public process has become a formality, a requirement satisfied after the decisions are made. That question will outlast AB1740. If City Hall has an answer, residents have yet to see it.
For years, Santa Monica has operated under a specific condition: the city never completed a document called a Local Coastal Program, a state-required planning framework that governs what can be built along the coast and how. Because it was never finished, an independent state agency, the California Coastal Commission, has retained the legal authority to review and approve development decisions in Santa Monica’s coastal zone. The city has had to answer to that agency before it could act.
AB1740 would change that. The bill, co-sponsored by the City of Santa Monica and Assemblymember Rick Zbur, along with allies such as Streets for All and Abundant Housing LA, would remove the state’s independent coastal watchdog from its oversight role and hand that authority to the city itself. Santa Monica would become the judge of its own coastal development decisions, including impact to sensitive resources, parking, access, and development.
Read More: https://smmirror.com/2026/06/sm-a-r-t-column-santa-monicas-coast-is-about-to-change-forever-most-residents-dont-know-its-happening-part-3/
