Santa Cruz County ballot measure aims to prevent offshore drilling
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY - Santa Cruz County made strides to bolster protections against offshore oil drilling and deep-sea mining Tuesday.
The county Board of Supervisors unanimously voted at its meeting to create a countywide ballot measure to update an ordinance regulating the development of onshore facilities related to offshore drilling. The city of Santa Cruz was set to vote on similar changes to its city ordinance at the Sentinel's print deadline Tuesday afternoon.
In the 1980s, Santa Cruz County, along with other cities and counties along California's coastline, passed ordinances intended to limit offshore oil drilling. Many of these ordinances require a vote of the people in order to build any onshore facilities supporting offshore drilling. Others outright banned the development of such facilities. These ordinances, adopted by 27 coastal communities, are known as the Blue Wall.
Recently, local jurisdictions have been working with nonprofit Save Our Shores to strengthen Blue Wall ordinances in response to actions by the federal government. In 2025, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management released a five-year oil and gas leasing program that included lease sales off the California coast. President Donald Trump has also issued executive orders proclaiming the need to accelerate the development of mineral resources in the deep sea, raising local concerns about the environmental impacts of deep-sea mining.
Working from a model ordinance developed by the Mills Legal Clinic at Stanford Law School, Save Our Shores has drafted updated regulations for the city of Santa Cruz as well as the county. The goal is to strengthen the laws and ensure they hold up to potential challenges, as well as to include regulations around the emerging deep-sea mining industry.
While changes to the city ordinance only need to go through the City Council, the county ordinance will go before voters in November.
The countywide ballot measure will propose regulations for the development of new onshore facilities related to offshore oil and gas production or deep-sea mining. It also includes a more direct definition of "onshore support facilities," and like the ordinance passed in the 1980s, requires a majority vote of the electorate to take any legislative action to authorize the development of such facilities.
The ordinance also includes an explanation of why offshore drilling or deep-sea mining off the coast of Santa Cruz could damage local ecosystems and economies, explained Katie Thompson, executive director of Save Our Shores.
The changes being proposed in the city of Santa Cruz are similar to those at the county level. The new regulations will, if approved, cover oil and gas activity as well as deep-sea mining operations. Any proposed zoning changes to accommodate onshore facilities supporting these operations would be subject to a vote of the people.
Thompson said that other jurisdictions across the state, including Capitola, are interested to see the Santa Cruz ordinance before updating their own regulations. Together with a coalition of other California nonprofits, Save Our Shores is in conversation with cities and counties that want to strengthen or create their own Blue Wall ordinances. It's likely that once the Santa Cruz City Council makes its vote, other cities will follow suit.
"What we're doing here is definitely a model for the rest of the state," Thompson said.
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