The General Assembly finds that:

(1) The waters of Long Island Sound and its coastal resources, including tidal rivers, streams and creeks, wetlands and marshes, intertidal mudflats, beaches and dunes, bluffs and headlands, islands, rocky shorefronts, and adjacent shorelands form an integrated natural estuarine ecosystem which is both unique and fragile;

(2) Development of Connecticut’s coastal area has been extensive and has had a significant impact on Long Island Sound and its coastal resources;

(3) The coastal area represents an asset of great present and potential value to the economic well-being of the state, and there is a state interest in the effective management, beneficial use, protection and development of the coastal area;

(4) The waterfront of Connecticut’s major urban ports is underutilized and many existing urban waterfront uses are not directly dependent on proximity to coastal waters;

(5) The coastal area is rich in a variety of natural, economic, recreational, cultural and aesthetic resources, but the full realization of their value can be achieved only by encouraging further development in suitable areas and by protecting those areas unsuited to development;

(6) The key to improved public management of Connecticut’s coastal area is coordination at all levels of government and consideration by municipalities of the impact of development on both coastal resources and future water-dependent development opportunities when preparing plans and regulations and reviewing municipal and private development proposals; and

(7) Unplanned population growth and economic development in the coastal area have caused the loss of living marine resources, wildlife and nutrient-rich areas, and have endangered other vital ecological systems and scarce resources.