Coastal resources: California Coastal Commission: scientific advice and recommendations: agriculture.

Existing law, the California Coastal Act of 1976, establishes the California Coastal Commission and prescribes the powers and responsibilities of the commission with regard to the regulation of development along the California coast. The act requires any person wishing to perform or undertake any development in the coastal zone, as defined, to obtain a coastal development permit, except as provided. Under existing law, the Legislature finds and declares that sound and timely scientific recommendations are necessary for many coastal planning, conservation, and development decisions and that the commission should interact with members of the scientific and academic communities in the social, physical, and natural sciences so that the commission may receive technical advice and recommendations with regard to its decisionmaking, especially with regard to issues that include, among other specified issues, coastal erosion and geology, marine biodiversity, and wetland restoration. This bill would include agriculture among the specified issues on which the commission may receive technical advice and recommendations, with regard to its decisionmaking, from members of the scientific and academic communities in the social, physical, and natural sciences.