Check if you need a BCDC permit

Where BCDC permits are required

Permits are required for most projects and activities in the following areas:

• San Francisco Bay, including its open waters, marshes, and mudflats
• Most creeks, rivers, sloughs, and other tributaries that flow into the Bay and are subject to tides
• The first 100 feet inland from the shoreline around San Francisco Bay and its tidally influenced tributaries (an area called the “shoreline band”)
• Certain areas of the Bay that were diked off in the past, including salt ponds, duck hunting preserves, game refuges, and other managed wetlands
• Large areas within Suisun Marsh, including levees, waterways, marshes, and low-lying grasslands

Activities and development that require permits

State law gives BCDC the authority to issue or deny permits for any projects that “place fill, …extract materials, or … make any substantial change in use of any water, land or structure” within its jurisdiction.

You need a permit before you do any of the following things within BCDC’s jurisdiction:

• Construct, remodel, or repair a structure
• Substantially change the use of any structure or area
• Moor a vessel for an extended period of time
• Dredge or extract material from the Bay bottom
• Dispose of material in the Bay
• Subdivide property
• Grade land
• Hold a large event
• Most other activities within BCDC’s jurisdiction