Many alternatives are available to solve prob- 

 lems that result from ambulatory boundaries. 

 These include joint Federal-State offshore leasing; 

 or Federal-State recognition of each other's leases, 

 by which each sovereign recognizes leases validly 

 issued by the other, with payments apportioned 

 between the two sovereigns according to the 

 shifting boundary; establishment of fixed bound- 

 ary hues as of a certain date, using common law 

 principles now in force; or use of straight-line 

 segments. 



New procedures are needed for making binding 

 coastal base line determinations. The present 

 procedure for making such determinations by 

 judicial decisions has definite limitations and may 

 be an improvident burden to place upon the 

 Federal courts, especially the Supreme Court. 



The panel recommends that a National seashore 

 boundary commission, judicial in nature, be estab- 

 lished by the Congress with authority to hear and 

 determine seashore boundary questions and con- 

 troversies involving proprietary interests of the 

 States under Federal grants to them, using present 

 principles of coastal boundary determination. 

 Such a commission should have the following 

 characteristics and authority: 



—The commission should be appointed by the 

 President, with the advice and consent of the 

 Senate. 



—The commission should have a limited life, 

 renewable at the option of the Congress. 



—The Congress should give its consent to State suit 

 against the United States, permitting States to 

 initiate boundary cases before the commission. 



—Jurisdiction of the Commission should be limited 

 to boundary questions between the States and the 

 United States, involving proprietary interests of 

 the States under Federal grants to them. The 

 commission should have authority to determine all 

 aspects of such offshore boundary questions, 

 including those regarding artificial structures and 

 the determination of lateral boundaries between 

 the States, amending 28 U.S.C. 1251(a) which 

 gives the Supreme Court exclusive jurisdiction to 

 hear and determine cases and controversies be- 

 tween the States. 



-Authority should be given to file stipulations 

 with the commission, and the commission should 

 be authorized to issue decrees recognizing offshore 

 boundaries, based on stipulations consented to by 

 the State and the Congress. 



—When fixed by the commission, coastal bound- 

 aries should be defined in terms of geographic or 

 plane coordinates or both. 



—Lines determined by the commission or by the 

 Supreme Court of the United States after an 

 appeal would be fixed permanently. Such stabiliza- 

 tion should apply only to ownership of submerged 

 lands or resources, not to general political jurisdic- 

 tion and authority. Authority to regulate mineral 

 lease operations should be stabilized at the prop- 

 erty Une so determined and fixed. 



II. REGULATORY AUTHORITY 



Coastal zone regulatory authority must be 

 considered in terms of the two distinct but related 

 regimes of land and water. The law of land-use 

 regulation is highly developed, both as to eco- 

 nomic development and preservation of open 

 space and other conservation and recreation inter- 

 ests. 



Regulation of underwater lands and their super- 

 jacent waters is a much-less-developed area of law, 

 but significant innovations have been made in 

 recent years, including Florida's criteria for loca- 

 ting bulkhead lines and dredging and filling opera- 

 tions; the wetlands protection laws of Maine, New 

 Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island; and 

 the State-wide proposals for "Blue Belt" zoning of 

 Hawaii. 



These innovations reflect growing concern by 

 various States to develop coastal areas to their 

 highest economic, recreational, and aesthetic po- 

 tential. As awareness of the value of U.S. coastal 

 and estuarine areas grows, we can expect new 

 approaches to the problems found. 



Just as land-use regulation has developed to an 

 imaginative sophisticated art, so also must regula- 

 tion of water use. Conservation and development 

 are inseparable parts of the same planning and 

 regulatory challenge facing our States and local- 

 ities. The remainder of this chapter is devoted to 

 regulatory authority for land and water uses as one 

 approach to flexible management of the coastal 

 zone. 



111-121 



