Welcome to the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission
The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) is a California state planning and regulatory agency with regional authority over the San Francisco Bay, the Bay’s shoreline band, and the Suisun Marsh. BCDC was created in 1965 and is the nation’s oldest coastal zone agency.
Its mission is to protect and enhance San Francisco Bay and to encourage the Bay’s responsible and productive use for this and future generations. State law requires sponsors of projects that propose to fill or extract materials from the Bay to apply for a BCDC permit. In addition to minimizing any fill required for an appropriate project and ensuring that the project is compatible with the conservation of Bay resources, BCDC is tasked with requiring maximum feasible public access within the Bay’s 100-foot shoreline band. Throughout its existence, BCDC has approved projects worth billions of dollars, and the Commission continues to work closely with all applicants – private and public – from a project’s initial stages to ensure that they comply with state law. In addition, the Commission leads the Bay Area’s ongoing multi-agency regional effort to address the impacts of rising sea level on shoreline communities and assets. Its authority is found in the McAteer-Petris Act, the San Francisco Bay Plan, and other special area plans and laws and policies.
