California Coastal Commission on a mission: Funding, focus aims at beach access for all

The California Coastal Commission in recent years has been ramping up efforts to ensure greater beach access for underserved communities, by baking it in as a requirement when approving new developments or correcting violations, as well as by granting millions for beach-equity initiatives.

“Certain communities and populations have been excluded for so long, it’s absolutely essential we make extra effort to make up for that,” said Sarah Christie, the commission’s legislative director. “I think equity demands a greater focus to ensure those communities are fully supported to have the access they’ve deserved all along.”

The Coastal Commission, made permanent by the 1976 California Coastal Act, “plans and regulates the use of land and water” along shorelines, along with local communities and other relevant agencies.

In Long Beach, for example, the commission has said it’ll support a new beach-side swimming pool only if a bus route brings inner city kids to play and there’s free or discounted lessons. In Dana Point, a renovation of the aging harbor got approval with the stipulation the developers help create an environmental education program for underserved youth that gets them around the water.

And for groups hoping to make the coastal space a more welcoming place, funds and support from state programs, such as grants delivered by the Coastal Commission from the Whale Tails license plate revenue, can make a big difference in reaching communities that also want to make the beach their playground.

A place to be free

Kyla Langen calls her past pro-surfing career a “big juxtaposition:” The ocean was a place she could feel free and liberated while in the water, but the surf industry was less than open to her sexuality, she said.

“You had to fit the bill of what they were looking for,” she said of sponsors, a major way pro surfers make money. “We had to conform to something we weren’t, if we wanted to get paid.”

Langen had family who supported her and access to the beach growing up in Carlsbad, but after moving to San Francisco, she said she quickly realized that many in the LGBTQ community felt the beach and its surf culture was a place they didn’t belong.

“Once I realized that, it became my life’s work to share (the beach),” said Langen, who with Nic Brisebois created the group Queer Surf. “The joy that it gives – mental health, physical health –  is just amazing. And everybody should have access to that. To be giving access to the LGBTQ, to queer and trans people, is a huge honor and privilege and our life’s work.”

It wasn’t long after the duo started holding meet ups in the San Francisco and Los  Angeles areas about seven years ago that they realized just how much their group was needed.

“A lot of people were so grateful to be able to meet community members, surf with community members, to find a queer community outside of bars in a nature setting,” she said.

Also, many in the LGBTQ community face discrimination and hiring challenges, leading to them hold lower-income jobs, making coastal access another challenge the group is overcoming, Langen said.

Queer Surf was recently given $50,000 by the Coastal Commission through its Whale Tail program, one of more than 50 groups to receive grant money in the latest round of funding.

The funding will help with community beach days planned in Huntington Beach, San Onofre and Manhattan Beach, among other spots; scholarships for a surf and camp getaway at San Mateo campground later this summer; and a Catalina Sea Camp that takes a group snorkeling and stand-up paddling, some for the first time.

“We constantly had the issue of wanting to reach the broader community, to reach people who don’t have access. But doing so takes labor and money on our part. We’re constantly navigating that, trying to service people with financial barriers,” Brisebois said.  “When we saw the Whale Tale grant could help pay for low-income people to get access, we were thrilled and knew it was a perfect match for us.”

Since its launch in 1997, the revenue from people choosing the Whale Tail license plate has totaled $117 million. In recent years, with the Coastal Commission’s Environmental Justice Policy adopted in 2019, more emphasis has been put on using the money to reduce barriers for marginalized communities.

The Coastal Commission this year approved more than $2 million going to nonprofit organizations.

El Modena High School in Orange received $19,572 to fund ecological research by the students, helping them visit local wetland plant communities, conduct habitat restoration and participate in scientific research while completing a California Naturalist certification.

Outward Bound Adventures was earmarked $46,000 for 16 families of color from Watts and Pasadena to take part in a “Teach Me to Camp ” overnight adventure at Leo Carrillo State Beach.

DiverSeaFy, out of Los Angeles County, received $30,000 to train BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) teens open water scuba skills and certification, earning three cleanup dives and two days of diving off Catalina Island.

Another $50,000 went to the Mountains Recreation & Conservation Authority for its Beach Equity & Accessibility for Community Health Leadership Program, bringing BIPOC community organization leaders to meet at the beach to discuss and explore barriers to equitable beach access and inform the conservation authority’s action toward solutions.

Paddle for Peace received $19,600 to help hold 10 beach events that will welcome BIPOC youth and families to experience outdoor activities such as surfing and beach volleyball, create relationships with mentors, increase knowledge of ocean conservation and enjoy community at the coast.

“Since the very beginning, we’ve been looking at providing educational and experiential learning and stewardship opportunities to pretty much the whole population of California,” said Chris Parry, the commission’s public education program manager  “But we recognize there is this lack of equity and historical exclusion to various communities for access to the coast.”

In the past five years, more grassroots organizations with a similar mission have sprouted up, Parry said, allowing the state agency to support them through funding.

“I think these programs are really making a difference and doing a lot. There’s so many ways barriers come up,” Parry said. “A lot of these programs are super creative in addressing these problem areas. And I think it’s making a difference. They are able to feel like the water and surfing space belongs to them and they are part of it.

“It’s not something other people do, it’s something they can do.”

A tide of change

When discussions got started in recent years about revitalizing the Belmont Beach and Aquatics Center – closed since 2013 by structural concerns – the Coastal Commission wanted to ensure it wasn’t just about building a $100 million facility at the beach for the nearby affluent community – the project proposal has recently been scaled down.

All residents, even if they live miles from the beach, should access the community pool, commissioners emphasized. So, a special condition was added by commissioners requiring the city to conduct extensive outreach and engagement with Long Beach’s underserved communities and incorporate that into an equitable public access plan.

It is just one of several examples of how the Coastal Commission in recent years has been using its flex to require developers who want to build large-scale projects to include access plans for underserved communities.

Much of this dates back to a 2016 bill passed by the Coastal Commission to consider environmental justice in permitting actions, said Linda Locklin, coastal access program manager.

“That really started to produce a shift in our agency,” Locklin said.  “We adopted a policy about how we were going to incorporate this into our work.”

Among the requirements for the Belmont Pool project became the addition of a new bus line, free or reduced rate swim lessons for underserved kids and reduced cost parking passes, Locklin said.

In Orange County, a proposal to re-design the Dana Point Harbor addresses the availability of lower-cost recreational opportunities by requiring the developer to work with local partners to create an outdoor environmental program for underserved youth in Orange County. The developers have already partnered with local YMCA branches, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County, The Boys & Girls Club of San Juan Capistrano and San Juan Elementary School, according to a recent update, and children have already gone whale watching, learned to kayak and more.

If someone is going to build on the coast, they have to avoid harm to coastal resources, Locklin said. But also, if there is an impact to public access, the law requires the public also gets a public access benefit.

When the Coastal Commission in 2022 approved a new $5 million junior lifeguard building in Newport Beach, it also directed the city’s department to provide scholarships to underserve families as a condition for the permit.

The department received $13,000 in donations to provide 13 scholarships for this year’s program and will increase that number in 2024, said Newport Beach Lifeguard Chief Brian O’Rourke.

For many Southern California residents, even if they only live a few miles from the coast, the difficulties of getting to the beach is a real barrier to access – whether it is the cost of gas to get there, parents having to take a day off to take their kids to the beach or the price tag for getaway that seems just beyond their comfort zone.

“It’s critical we continue this effort to bring people to the beach, remove barriers and make things as easy as possible for the people who have been excluded in the past to have access to the beach,” Parry said. “It is one of the joys of living in California, this coastline we have. We need to make sure everyone has access to it.”