Committee backs bill to require monarch-overwintering protections in coastal plan updates

Assemblymember Addis presented AB 22 54, the Coastal Monarch Protection Act, proposing that jurisdictions within the coastal zone that hold monarch overwintering sites include overwintering-site protection policies when they next update their Local Coastal Plans. "Western monarchs are incredibly important," said Scott Black of the Xerces Society, noting dramatic declines and saying overwintering groves are critical and irreplaceable.

Robert Heim of the California State Parks Foundation said state parks host over 50 overwintering sites and that monarch-related visitation supports small local economies; he noted that more than 50,000 visitors come annually to certain state-park monarch sites. The bill directs the Coastal Commission to develop model guidance to help jurisdictions incorporate protections.

Local governments and associations cautioned that Local Coastal Plan (LCP) updates are time-consuming and costly, and some overwintering sites lie outside the formal coastal zone. Melissa Sparks Kranz of the League of California Cities urged using site-specific habitat-management plans or listing under the California Endangered Species Act instead of imposing new LCP requirements.

Committee members discussed trade-offs between the long state listing process and the urgency of habitat loss. Proponents said the bill ties protections to scheduled LCP updates to reduce redundancy. After discussion the committee voted to pass AB 22 54 as amended to the Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee.

The measure advances with direction to work with local governments and the Coastal Commission on model policies and implementation details.