Public hearings

The management program must be developed and adopted after the holding of public hearings. A State must:

(a) Hold a minimum of two public hearings during the course of program development, at least one of which will be on the total scope of the coastal management program. Hearings on the total management program do not have to be held on the actual document submitted to the Assistant Administrator for section 306 approval. However, such hearing(s) must cover the substance and content of the proposed management program in such a manner that the general public, and particularly affected parties, have a reasonable opportunity to understand the impacts of the management program. If the hearing(s) are not on the management document per se, all requests for such document must be honored and comments on the document received prior to submission of the document to the Assistant Administrator must be considered;

(b) Provide a minimum of 30 days public notice of hearing dates and locations;

(c) Make available for public review, at the time of public notice, all agency materials pertinent to the hearings; and

(d) Include a transcript or summary of the public hearing(s) with the State's program document or submit same within thirty (30) days following submittal of the program to the Assistant Administrator. At the same time this transcript or summary is submitted to the Assistant Administrator, it must be made available, upon request, to the public.