BILL ANALYSIS
SB 505
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB 505 (Kehoe)
As Amended July 13, 2009
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :24-15
LOCAL GOVERNMENT 5-0 NATURAL RESOURCES 6-1
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|Ayes:|Caballero, Arambula, |Ayes:|Skinner, Brownley, |
| |Davis, Krekorian, Skinner | |Chesbro, |
| | | |De Leon, Hill, Huffman |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | |Nays:|Logue |
| | | | |
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APPROPRIATIONS 12-5
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|Ayes:|De Leon, Ammiano, | | |
| |Charles Calderon, Coto, | | |
| |Davis, | | |
| |Fuentes, Hall, John A. | | |
| |Perez, | | |
| |Skinner, Solorio, | | |
| |Torlakson, Hill | | |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Conway, Harkey, Miller, | | |
| |Nielsen, | | |
| |Audra Strickland | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Expands the required contents of safety elements that
cover state responsibility area lands (SRA) and very high fire
hazard severity zones, as specified. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires the Governor's Office of Planning and Research (OPR)
to update its "Fire Hazard Planning" document on or before
January 1, 2011.
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2)Requires cities and counties, prior to January 1, 2015, and
thereafter upon each revision of the housing element, to
review and update their safety elements as needed to address
the risk of fire for land classified as SRA and land
classified very high fire hazard severity zones.
3)Requires this review to consider the advice included in the
most recent publication of OPR's "Fire Hazard Planning"
document.
4)Requires that the review also include all of the following:
a) Information about fire hazards, including fire hazard
severity zone maps, historical data on wildfires,
information about wildfire hazard areas available from the
United States (U.S.) Geological Survey, the general
location and distribution of existing and planned
development, and public fire protection agencies;
b) A set of comprehensive goals, policies, and objectives,
including avoiding or minimizing wildfire hazards
associated with new development, identifying construction
design or methods to minimize the potential for ignition or
spread of a structure fire to wildlands or surrounding
areas if new development is located in SRA lands, locating
new essential public facilities outside SRA land and very
high fire hazard severity zones, and working cooperatively
with public fire protection agencies; and,
c) Establishing feasible implementation measures designed
to carry out the goals, policies, and objectives.
5)Requires OPR, at the next California Environmental Quality Act
(CEQA) guidelines update on or after January 1, 2010, to
prepare guidelines recommending changes to the initial study
checklist for the inclusion of questions related to fire
hazard impacts for projects in an SRA or within very high
hazard severity zones.
6)Requires, after receipt and review, the Natural Resources
Agency to certify and adopt the proposed guideline changes.
EXISTING LAW :
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1)Requires the Director of the California Department of Forestry
and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) to identify areas in the state
as very high fire hazard severity zones based on consistent
statewide criteria and the severity of fire hazard that is
expected to prevail in those areas as determined by fuel
loading, slope, fire weather, and other relevant factors.
2)Defines SRAs as areas of the state in which the financial
responsibility of preventing and suppressing fires has been
determined by the Board of Forestry (Board) to be primarily
the responsibility of the state.
3)Requires the Board to identify as SRAs all lands where the
state has the primary financial responsibility for preventing
and suppressing fires.
4)Requires the Board to map SRAs and provide this map to county
assessors and update this map every five years.
5)Excludes from SRAs, federal lands and lands within the
exterior boundaries of any city, except a city and county with
a population of less than 25,000 if, at the time the city and
county government is established, the county contains no
municipal corporations.
6)Requires CAL FIRE, within SRAs, to provide wildland fire
prevention and firefighting personnel and equipment, and may
provide rescue, first aid, and other emergency services
if the activity does not require additional funds.
7)Requires the director of CAL FIRE to classify and update or
reclassify, if necessary, SRAs into fire hazard severity zones
for the purposes of fire prevention and suppression.
8)Requires local governments to adopt a general plan that
includes, among other things, a safety element, and requires a
local government with SRAs or a very high fire hazard severity
zone to submit a draft safety element to the Board for its
review and comment prior to its adoption or amendment.
9)Requires, under CEQA, lead agencies with the principal
responsibility for carrying out or approving a proposed
discretionary project to prepare a negative declaration,
mitigated declaration, or environmental impact report (EIR)
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for this action, unless the project is exempt from CEQA (CEQA
includes various statutory exemptions, as well as categorical
exemptions in the CEQA guidelines).
10)Requires, under CEQA, an initial study to be prepared to
determine whether a project may have a significant effect on
the environment.
11)Requires OPR to prepare and develop proposed guidelines to
implement CEQA, and submit them to the Secretary of the
Natural Resources Agency for certification and adoption.
12)Requires OPR to review CEQA guidelines at least every two
years and recommend changes or amendments to the Secretary of
the Natural Resources Agency for certification and adoption.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
1)CAL FIRE asserts that the minimum cost to comply with the
bill's requirements would be $153,000 General Fund (GF) for a
half-time position for guideline assistance and a full-time
position to provide the Board with the resources to meet their
review requirements.
2)To effectively review safety elements and consult on CEQA
issues, CAL FIRE indicates it would need to update its
vegetation maps, which are currently out of date. CAL FIRE
estimates this would require about $1 million (GF) in annual
IT and related operational expenditures (assuming that maps
covering about one-sixth of the state would be updated each
year.)
3)About $20,000 one-time cost to OPR to develop and update its
guidelines.
COMMENTS : According to the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO),
local land use decisions are responsible for an increasing
density of homes in the wildland urban interface (WUI) but the
consequences of those decisions - increased fire risk and
medical emergencies - are increasingly the responsibility of the
state. In its analysis of the 2008-09 budget, LAO found that
CAL FIRE's budget has increased 150% since 1997-98. One of the
cost drivers of CAL FIRE's growing expenditures is increasing
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development in the WUI. Despite the fact that the total acreage
in SRAs has remained stable over the last 15 years, the number
of housing units in SRAs has increased by 15% over this period.
Based on 2005 data, LAO reports that there are about 870,000
housing units in SRAs, and the number is increasing at an
accelerating pace.
The author's office notes that "it is in the state's best
interest to ensure that cities and counties do all they can to
engage in comprehensive and consistent fire prevention and fire
protection planning as early in the local land use planning
process as possible."
Following recent wildfires, there are concerns over reducing
loss of lives and property, high costs of fire protection, and
addressing those losses and costs through land use planning.
This bill expands the required contents of safety elements
covering SRA lands and very high fire hazard severity zones and
also requires OPR to revise CEQA guidelines to change the
initial study to address fire hazard impacts.
In their letter of opposition the California State Association
of Counties and the Regional Council of Rural Counties state we
"understand the author's interest in strengthening existing laws
to ensure additional consideration of fire safety issues in the
land use planning and development processes. However, we must
oppose the provision of the bill that would have the affect of
requiring cities and counties with land designated as SRA and
very high fire hazard severity zones, to amend their general
plan safety elements to address fire safety issues in a more
comprehensive manner. We are concerned with the potential
implementation costs which will be in the thousands of dollars
depending on the amount of public outreach, controversy, and
environmental review. The bill indicates that the local agency
may levy a fee to pay for the program mandated by this measure.
It is unrealistic to expect cities and counties to recover all
of these costs through the imposition of charges, fees, or
assessments."
Similar legislation: AB 666 (Jones), pending in the Senate,
would require the legislative body of a county to make three
specified findings before approving a tentative map or a parcel
map for an area located in an SRA or a very high fire hazard
severity zone as designated by CAL FIRE.
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SB 1500 (Kehoe) of 2008) would have prohibited a county from
approving a proposed project, as defined, in an SRA if the Board
determines that structural fire protection is a local
responsibility and no fire protection services are provided, as
specified. This measure died on the Assembly Floor.
AB 2447 (Jones) of 2008), almost identical to what is currently
in AB 666, was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger. However, the
veto message references components of previous versions of AB
2447, not the final version that was passed by the Legislature.
Analysis Prepared by : Katie Kolitsos / L. GOV. / (916)
319-3958
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