Planning: San Diego
California Lands Commission and San Diego Unified Port District Announce Collaborative Marine Planning Agreement
The California State Lands Commission and the San Diego Unified Port District have agreed to work together to develop a pilot marine planning partnership in San Diego County. Their intention is to ensure meaningful public participation, accountability, transparency, and a science-based process for adaptively managing ocean resources.
The agreement establishes a framework to engage in a comprehensive, ecosystem-based, stakeholder driven partnership for state-owned tidelands and submerged lands in the Pacific Ocean offshore San Diego County. It will help guide cooperative future planning for ocean areas, which are managed by the State Lands Commission, with holistic consideration of adjacent areas of the San Diego Bay that are managed by the Port of San Diego and the Commission.
"As the environmental steward of San Diego Bay, the Port has a long history of proactive and ongoing efforts to protect and manage this water and land resource, our priceless and irreplaceable regional asset," said Port Chairman Marshall Merrifield. "Our historic agreement with the State Lands Commission to partner on planning for areas of the Pacific Ocean adjacent to Port jurisdiction is a model of collaboration among public agencies for the greater good. This partnership will support scientific decision making, management consistency across jurisdictions, and robust public engagement."
The memorandum of agreement is available here.