photo credit: Greta Mart/KRCB
Where the Russian River meets the Pacific Ocean, near Jenner.

The California Coastal Commission approved a long-planned update to Sonoma County's coastal land use and zoning regulations on Thursday at the commission's meeting in San Francisco.
The unanimous vote from the commission's 12 members approved an update to Sonoma County's zoning regulations along its 55-mile coastline that are outlined in a Local Coastal Program, or LCP, also known as a Local Coastal Plan.
It covers land use regulations in areas related to housing and commercial development, agriculture, public access to the coast, open space and conservation.
It also considers water resources, transit and traffic circulation, cultural resources, and public services and resources like hotels and public bathrooms.
Approval of the Local Coastal Plan allows the county government to have permitting authority for development within the County's Coastal Zone, which extends from between a half mile and three miles from the coast in Sonoma County, except for some areas along the Russian River where it extends as far as five miles from the coast.
It is the first update to Sonoma County's Local Coastal Plan since 2001, when the version first certified in 1982 was amended, according to the county.
The LCP is required under the California Coastal Act of 1976.
The effort to create a comprehensive new version was launched in 2013, according to Cecily Condon, a project review division manager with Permit Sonoma, who spoke in person during the public comment period at the Coastal Commission's meeting, along with County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins and other county representatives.
"Our community takes great pride in our coast, and this plan is intended to build us a policy framework not for today, certainly not for 2013, but for something that will carry us and that foundation into the future," Condon said in her comments to the Coastal Commission.
Some of the changes focus on new goals such as encouraging more affordable housing development and combatting sea level rise.
Goals listed in the 708-page document include discouraging oil drilling exploration and development off the Sonoma County coast and prohibiting onshore support facilities for such outer continental shelf energy exploration.
Housing goals include encouraging more affordable housing development in existing urban areas by supporting grant programs, pushing allowances under the state's density bonus law, requiring 30% of housing assisted with county funds be set aside for lower income residents, and supporting more housing for farmworkers.
New housing will be concentrated in the Bodega Bay Urban Service Area, which includes the Sea Ranch community.
New visitor-serving commercial development is encouraged, but only in existing "urban service areas" and with other stipulations. Businesses already serving a visitor or public service-oriented purpose will be allowed limited expansion under the new LCP.
It also encourages more "low impact" or "modest scale" overnight accommodations like campgrounds, short-term vacation rentals in existing homes, guest ranches and motels, according to the LCP submitted to the Coastal Commission.
The plan also lays out a goal of preserving agriculture as a long-term economically viable sector in the county by protecting ag lands from urban development by maintaining rural community boundaries, preventing conversion of farmland into residential use, and seeking more financial resources to prevent ag land from being subdivided.
Coastal Commission chair Caryl Hart hailed the plan's approval.
"There's been a lot of challenges and I think we've addressed that with, for example, what's happened at Gleason Beach," Hart said. "We've also seen the largest Caltrans adaptation project in the state to move inland, and address and create a new section that provides for bicycle access, pedestrian access, really enhances and creates a new wetland, and provides access to the beach there at Gleason....I just think Sonoma County, in so many ways has provided a model."
The Coastal Commission did approve the LCP with some modifications to clarify habitat protection boundaries, coastal drainage, and minor issues like grammar clarifications that must be approved by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors within six months.
Coastal Commissioners also approved plans by the Wildlands Conservancy to improve access to the Estero Americano, just south of the Bodega Harbor subdivision.
The move for increased public accessibility via the Shorttail Gulch trailhead and parking lot hasn't been warmly received by the local homeowners association, but the Coastal Commission, as transportation planner Eric Stevens outlined, prioritized access.
"All the streets in the subdivision are public streets," Stevens said. "These trails are public trails, and the easement can be used by the public, including to access the preserve trails as is proposed in this project. You're likely to hear it differently from the HOA...but in our view, this is actually a pretty clean cut case of the public exercising their rights of public access."
The plans for new public access to the Estero Americano preserve which Coastal Commissioners approved, include new kayak pull-ins and a new public bathroom.