McAteer-Petris Act

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Summary

• The McAteer-Petris Act (Act) created the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) as a response to haphazard and uncoordinated filling of San Francisco Bay.
  
  
• The primary purpose of the Act is to promote responsible planning and regulation of San Francisco Bay. The Act emphasizes the elimination of the unnecessary placement of fill in the Bay, the use of the Bay for water-oriented uses, and the inclusion of public access consistent wiht a proposed project.
  
  
• BCDC's jurisdiction generally extends to all areas of the Bay that are subject to tidal action, including sloughs and marshlands, to a 100-foot shoreline band surrounding the Bay, to saltponds and managed wetlands as defined in the Act, and certain designated waterways.
  
  
• The Act requires that people obtain permits to fill, to extract materials, and to make substantial changes in use of land, water or existing structures in the Bay. In determining whether to issue permits, the BCDC looks to policies set forth in the Act and in the San Francisco Bay Plan. In general, these policies authorize fill or excavation of wetlands only for water-dependent projects where no feasible upland alternatives exist, and only if wetlands impacts are mitigated. The BCDC issues four types of permits: major permits, administrative permits, emergency permits, and regionwide permits.
  
  
• The BCDC issues federal consistency determinations under the Coastal Zone Management Act for areas within its jurisdiction.