Ann Notthoff of Carmel Valley appointed to California Coastal Commission.

One of the state’s largest land-use regulatory agencies officially has two representatives from Monterey County. On July 18, Ann Notthoff of Carmel Valley was reappointed by Senate Leader Mike McGuire and the Senate Rules Committee to the California Coastal Commission.

Notthoff was first appointed to the commission in March 2023 to fill Sara Aminzadeh’s seat after Aminzadeh left to work in Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration. Notthoff brings over four decades of experience at the Natural Resources Defense Council, where she worked before retiring in 2020, and has served as a board member of the California State Coastal Conservancy for over fifteen years.

“Being on the Coastal Commission is a real honor for me,” says Notthoff. “Having been an advocate for so long, it's kind of a full circle moment to be a part of the decision making process.”

Her career began as an environmental advocate, in which she worked on developing strong local coastal plans up and down the coast –– the Big Sur Land Use Plan among them. She was a founding member of the California League for Coastal Protection, an advocacy coalition focused on supporting public officials who will uphold the California Coastal Act, and she currently serves on the board of LandWatch, an environmental watchdog nonprofit.

She will serve a four-year term, ending on May 20, 2029. In May of this year, Monterey County Supervisor Chris Lopez, who lives in Greenfield and represents the Salinas Valley and was elected to the California Coastal Commission by California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas. The commission is made up of 12 voting members –– six are locally elected officials from six coastal districts across Southern, Central and Northern California, and the other six are public, at-large appointees. 

Notthoff says her work at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a national nonprofit environmental advocacy organization, gives her a statewide perspective on her work with the coastal commission. Key issues on the horizon, she adds, include new threats of offshore oil and gas drilling, locating workforce housing in the coastal zone to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and protecting an increasingly fragile coastline while managing homes at risk of crumbling into the ocean.

“These are tough times for environmental protection,” she says. “California has been a leader in clean, sustainable energy, but with the threat of oil and gas drilling looming once again off the California coast, that’s a major issue. I think the Coastal Commission is one of the first lines of defense in protecting our coast from oil and gas drilling.”

She encourages people interested in coastal issues or development to connect with Coastal Commission staff, especially through public comment.

“The sooner that people connect with commission staff and get feedback on what they’re thinking about, the better,” she says. “Show up in person or sign up on Zoom and make your voice heard.”

You can find the next California Coastal Commission meetings here.