Santa Cruz City Council bolsters offshore drilling ordinance

SANTA CRUZ - The Santa Cruz City Council unanimously voted to update an ordinance regulating offshore oil drilling infrastructure at its meeting Tuesday.

In 1985, voters in the city of Santa Cruz passed a measure with the goal of limiting offshore oil and gas drilling off the city's coast. The ordinance requires a vote of the people in order to make zoning changes that would accommodate onshore facilities supporting offshore drilling. Santa Cruz and over 25 other jurisdictions along California's coastline adopted such policies, creating what is known as the Blue Wall.

Now, as the federal government has plans for oil and gas leases off California's coast, and President Donald Trump has shown interest in accelerating the emerging deep-sea mining industry, Santa Cruz has been prompted to bolster its Blue Wall ordinance.

In September 2025, Mayor Fred Keeley, Vice Mayor Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson and Councilmember Renee Golder brought forward an initiative to oppose offshore drilling. Part of that work included contracting with Save Our Shores to help strengthen the city's Blue Wall policy. Golder, Kalantari-Johnson and Councilmember Scott Newsome, as well as the city attorney, worked closely with the nonprofit during this process.

Save Our Shores worked from a model ordinance created by the Mills Legal Clinic at Stanford Law School, and contracted with George Leonard, an ocean conservation and policy expert, to create policies specific to Santa Cruz. The city's updated municipal code ordinance adds prohibitions against onshore support facilities for deep-sea mining in addition to offshore oil and gas drilling. It also adds more context to explain how offshore drilling could be specifically harmful for Santa Cruz. The language has also been clarified to make the ordinance more legally defensible, said Katie Thompson, executive director of Save Our Shores.

Just as Santa Cruz was a leader among jurisdictions in opposing offshore drilling in the 1980s, the city is at the forefront of the movement in 2026. Thompson said that several jurisdictions across the state have their eyes on Santa Cruz as they consider updating their Blue Wall policies, or creating them for the first time.

"This is what local control looks like and this is what leading with values looks like," said Kalantari-Johnson. "These are real threats, and the administration is moving very aggressively and very quickly. We can't stop this unilaterally, but we can make absolutely clear that this community will not be a staging ground for it."

The City Council voted unanimously to approve the revisions to the municipal code to cheers from the crowd, some of whom held signs with messages opposing offshore drilling.

Just hours before the City Council voted on its anti-offshore drilling policy, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors moved forward with similar revisions to its ordinance. On November's ballot, voters will be asked to weigh in on whether to make changes to the county ordinance.

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