This subpart sets forth the requirements for management program approvability with respect to land and water uses which, because of their direct and significant impacts on coastal waters or those geographic areas likely to be affected by or vulnerable to sea level rise, are subject to the terms of the management program. This subpart deals in full with the following subsections of the Act: 306(d)(1)(B), Uses Subject to the Management Program, 306(d)(2)(H), Energy Facility Planning, and 306(d)(12)(B), Uses of Regional Benefit.

(a)(1) The management program for each coastal state must include a definition of what shall constitute permissible land uses and water uses within the coastal zone which have a direct and significant impact on the coastal waters.

(2) The management program must identify those land and water uses that will be subject to the terms of the management program. These uses shall be those with direct and significant impacts on coastal waters or on geographic areas likely to be affected by or vulnerable to sea level rise.

(3) The management program must explain how those uses identified in paragraph (a)(2) of this section will be managed. The management program must also contain those enforceable policies, legal authorities, performance standards or other techniques or procedures that will govern whether and how uses will be allowed, conditioned, modified, encouraged or prohibited.

(b) In identifying uses and their appropriate management, a State should analyze the quality, location, distribution and demand for the natural and man-made resources of their coastal zone, and should consider potential individual and cumulative impacts of uses on coastal waters.

(c) States should utilize the following types of analyses:

(1) Capability and suitability of resources to support existing or projected uses;

(2) Environmental impacts on coastal resources;

(3) Compatibility of various uses with adjacent uses or resources;

(4) Evaluation of inland and other location alternatives; and

(5) Water dependency of various uses and other social and economic considerations.

(d) Examination of the following factors is suggested:

(1) Air and water quality;

(2) Historic, cultural and esthetic resources where coastal development is likely to affect these resources;

(3) Open space or recreational uses of the shoreline where increased access to the shorefront is a particularly important concern;

(4) Floral and faunal communities where loss of living marine resources or threats to endangered or threatened coastal species are particularly important concerns.

(5) Information on the impacts of global warming and resultant sea level rise on natural resources such as beaches, dunes, estuaries, and wetlands, on salinization of drinking water supplies, and on properties, infrastructure and public works.

The management program must contain a method of assuring that local land use and water use regulations within the coastal zone do not unreasonably restrict or exclude land uses and water uses of regional benefit. To this end, the management program must:

(a) Identify what constitutes uses of regional benefit; and

(b) Identify and utilize any one or a combination of methods, consistent with the control techniques employed by the State, to assure local land and water use regulations do not unreasonably restrict or exclude uses of regional benefit.

The management program must contain a planning process for energy facilities likely to be located in or which may significantly affect, the coastal zone, including a process for anticipating the management of the impacts resulting from such facilities. (See subsection 304(5) of the Act.) This process must contain the following elements:

(a) Identification of energy facilities which are likely to locate in, or which may significantly affect, a State's coastal zone;

(b) Procedures for assessing the suitability of sites for such facilities designed to evaluate, to the extent practicable, the costs and benefits of proposed and alternative sites in terms of State and national interests as well as local concerns;

(c) Articulation and identification of enforceable State policies, authorities and techniques for managing energy facilities and their impacts; and

(d) Identification of how interested and affected public and private parties will be involved in the planning process.