In 1965, Governor Pat Brown signed the McAteer-Petris Act to create the Bay Conservation and Development Commission. The bill creating BCDC was passed after a massive grassroots effort, led by Save The Bay (then Save San Francisco Bay Association), which mobilized citizens to write letters, attend hearings and journey by the busload to Sacramento to demand action that would stop wholesale filling of San Francisco Bay...
Published: January, 2006
In 1965, Governor Pat Brown signed the McAteer-Petris Act to create the Bay Conservation and Development Commission. The bill creating BCDC was passed after a massive grassroots effort, led by Save The Bay (then Save San Francisco Bay Association), which mobilized citizens to write letters, attend hearings and journey by the busload to Sacramento to demand action that would stop wholesale filling of San Francisco Bay.
At the time, one-third of the Bay had already been filled for development or diked off from the tides and drained. Each shoreline city had its own plans for additional landfill and development. BCDC completed a detailed study of the Bay, and prepared a comprehensive and enforceable plan for the conservation of the water of the Bay and development of its shoreline. The Commission also protected the Bay from further piecemeal filling while the plan was being completed.
BCDC’s Bay Plan was submitted to the state legislature in 1969 and Governor Ronald Reagan signed the law making BCDC a permanent agency with authority to regulate filling and dredging by permit in the Bay and within a 100-foot shoreline band.
Supporters of BCDC have beaten back challenges to the Commission and its authority to protect the Bay. When Governor Pete Wilson proposed eliminating BCDC’s budget in 1995, Save The Bay and maritime businesses joined together to save the Commission.
In 2004, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California Performance Review considered reducing BCDC’s authority to regulate dredging and other activity in the Bay, but an outpouring of public opposition forced the withdrawal of that proposal.
BCDC continues today, the first coastal zone management agency and the model for most others in the world. The agency Save The Bay created has prevented most additional bay fill, and since BCDC’s inception there has actually been a net gain in the size of the Bay through tidal marsh restoration. Agency permits for development along the Bay have mandated new public shoreline access, increasing from less than 10 miles of access in 1969 to over 200 miles today.
For more information on the history of Save The Bay and the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, visit www.saveSFbay.org/ourhistory
The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC)
• BCDC was the first coastal zone management agency in the United States, and the model for the California Coastal Commission and other coastal agencies around the world.
• BCDC has jurisdiction over open water, marshes and mudflats as well as the first 100 feet of land extending from the shoreline.
• BCDC has established and implemented a Bay Plan to encourage commercial and recreational uses while protecting environmentally sensitive areas.
