City attorney briefs Planning Commission on how to write findings for coastal development permits

Marlene Dalinger, deputy city attorney for the City of Half Moon Bay, told the Planning Commission on April 8 that coastal development permits require written findings tying the commission’s conclusions to evidence in the record.

Dalinger said the city’s municipal code (chapter 18.2) requires a set of six categories of findings for a coastal development permit and emphasized that findings must “expose the agency’s mode of analysis and bridge the analytic gap between the evidence presented and the agency’s ultimate decision.” She explained that findings demonstrate how the commission applied staff reports, public testimony and other record evidence to reach…