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toward a national policy for land use. The Administration's coastal zone pro- 

 posal grew out of a number of studies, most important of which were the Strat- 

 ton Commission Report and the two Estuarine Reports by the Department of 

 the Interior which culminated in the interagency task force chaired by myself 

 when Under Secretary of the Interior, as I have already mentioned. The func- 

 tion of the task force was to develop the Administration's legislative proposal 

 for coastal zone management. The central issue then, as it is now, was to 

 build upon the inherent State regulatory authority in order to better guide 

 development and conservation decisions in the coastal zone. There was some con- 

 cern even then by the Administration that by urging the coastal States to take 

 back from local governments some of the regulatory powers historically dele- 

 gated to them over a limited area, the coastal States might complicate the 

 reform of their zoning laws by creating new agencies dealing with only a 

 portion of the problem. But at that time, over a year and a half ago. environ- 

 mental issues were only beginning to awaken broad public interest and .support 

 and it was difficult to predict then what we know now — that the concern for 

 the environment is an overriding domestic issue of sufficient weight that State 

 and local governments are now willing to move much faster to broadly reform 

 their institutional and regulatory processes over land use. Likewise, over this 

 period of time the Administration, concerned congressional committees, and 

 many State Governments have had a better opportunity to gain a deeper under- 

 standing of the problem, thus providing support for a broader solution such as 

 represented in the Administration's land use bill. 



In the ensuing six months the Council on Environmental Quality was estab- 

 lished and submitted to the Congress last August its First Annual Report on the 

 Nation's Environment. In that report the Council devoted a substantial chapter 

 to the problems of land use in this country. The Annual Report recounted the 

 first initiatives on coastal zone legislation but went beyond them to indicate the 

 need for land law reform throughout the 50 States. In his message accompany- 

 ing the Annual Report to Congress, President Nixon emphasized the importance 

 of land use reform and indicated his desire to develop a national land use 

 policy. 



On February 8 of this year the President's national land use policy was 

 articulated in the form of the legislative proposal submitted to the Congress 

 in S. 992. 



This Committee has given the problems of coastal zone management the high- 

 est priority, having held exhaustive hearings last year over a period of almost 

 six months, hearing witnesses and eliciting testimony from the broadest spec- 

 trum of this country. The testimony and information elicited during these hear- 

 ings have greatly assisted the Administration in assessing how best to meet the 

 critical development issues in this country, particularly in the coastal zone. 



The Administration is sensitive to the concern of this Committee that the 

 issues of coastal zone management be given priority attention. We are likewise 

 concerned that the States not complicate their reform of land use law by creat- 

 ing separate institutions over the coastal zone which might later compete with 

 and complicate the ability of the States to address the total problems of land 

 use planning and regulation within their borders. Certainly, the signs around 

 us are unmistakable that States are now more willing to approach the land 

 use regulatory issues on a broader basis, witness the recent legislation in 

 Maine. Vermont and the proposed initiative in such diverse areas as Colorado 

 and the State of "Washington. 



Now that the Administration is committed to a more extensive policy affect- 

 ing land use throughout the United States, it seems reasonable to treat the 

 coastal zone within this expanded framework. Thus, the very same objectives 

 embodied in the Administration's coastal zone legislation are incorporated in 

 the national land use policy proposal. Indeed, it is absolutely essential that a 

 national land use policy include the coastal zone because the problems of land 

 regulation in coastal areas are particularly severe, and failure to deal with 

 them can lead to irreversible losses. Thus, the national land use policy pro- 

 posal makes the coastal zone an area for priority attention (1) by defining the 

 coastal zone as an "area of critical environmental concern" over which States 

 must assert effective control, and (2) by allocating funds with specific consider- 

 ation to the needs of the coastal States. 



"We feel that the long labors of this Committee have borne and are continuing 

 to bear fruit and that the experience and insight your research and hearings 



