Legislature(2003 - 2004)
2003-03-12 Senate Journal
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Full Journal pdf2003-03-12 Senate Journal Page 0474 Dear President Therriault: Under the authority of art. III, sec. 18, of the Alaska Constitution, I am transmitting a bill to reform and streamline the Alaska Coastal Management Program (ACMP). This legislation is premised upon the statutory changes contained in Executive Order 106, which I presented to you on February 12, 2003. Executive Order 106 would transfer responsibility for the ACMP program from the division of governmental coordination in the office of management and budget to the Department of Natural Resources. The Alaska Coastal Management Program was first enacted in 1977 in order to participate in the federal Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972. The federal program is voluntary, and encourages states to adopt coastal programs by providing federal funds and the opportunity for federal consistency review. Federal consistency review enables the state to apply its authorities to projects located on federal land and the federal outer continental shelf where otherwise it would be preempted by federal law. The goal of this legislation is to create a new coastal management program that retains the benefits of the federal act but eliminates the duplication and complexity built into the present ACMP. This bill would achieve this goal by choosing the simplest of the three management techniques allowed by the federal act. The bill provides certainty and predictability to the ACMP process by clarifying the standards and responsibilities for program implementation. The central streamlining concept of the bill is the reliance on existing state statutes and regulations as the enforceable policies of the ACMP. The current duplicative consistency review process in AS 46.40.096 and 6 AAC 50 is eliminated by simply relying on the issuance of current state permits by the resource agencies as the means of determining whether an activity is consistent with the ACMP. The bill would eliminate district coastal management enforceable policies but retains a local role in three ways. First, AS 29 municipalities would retain their existing land use authorities to regulate private activity within their jurisdiction. Second, the bill authorizes the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), as the