Overview

Since 1989, over 25,000 affordable Transient Accommodation units (hotel rooms) have been lost along the California coastline. Average daily room rates in the Coastal Zone have averaged higher than inflation and more than other California regions for decades, and that is largely due to affordable accommodations being converted to luxury hotels. For decades, the Coastal Commission has been collecting Fees "In Lieu" of requiring developers to provide actual affordable accommodations to offset these losses, but it has been so infeasible to develop traditional hotels at an affordable price point, that the in lieu fees required to be paid by developers recently increased to $100,000 per room, and even that has not been a big enough subsidy to catalyze additional affordable accommodation development. Part of the Coastal Commission's mission is accessibility, and the lack of affordable units has made the coastline inaccessible to many Californians. We dream of a future where the California coastal trail is complete, and there are supportive affordable accommodations along the entire trail to make the entire coastline accessible to everyone. And we are working with the CA State Parks, CA Coastal Conservancy, CA Coastal Commission, and other regional agencies and interested private parties to make this vision reality.