Bay Conservation and Development Commission

The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) protects and enhances San Francisco Bay and encourages the Bay’s responsible and productive use for this and future generations. BCDC has regulatory responsibility over development in San Francisco Bay and along the Bay’s nine-county shoreline. BCDC was the first coastal protection agency created in the country in 1965 by the California state legislature and has permitting jurisdiction in the Bay, 100 feet inland of the shoreline band, and other specified waterways throughout the nine Bay Area counties, with commissioners represented by each of the nine counties.

BCDC’s Climate Change Program goals are to promote research to improve the understanding of climate change impacts, mitigation and adaptation; develop and implement climate change adaptation policies in coordination with regional partners and stakeholders; and to build the region’s institutional capacity to effectively adapt to climate change in a coordinated and collaborative way.

Convened by BCDC, Bay Adapt: Regional Strategy for a Rising Bay is an initiative to establish regional agreement on the actions necessary to protect people and the natural and built environment from rising sea levels.