BILL NUMBER: AB 752 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 27, 2011
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 30, 2011
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Brownley
(Coauthor: Assembly Member Chesbro)
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
An act to add Section 6315 to the Public Resources Code, relating
to tidelands and submerged lands.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 752, as amended, Brownley. Tidelands and submerged lands: sea
level action plan.
Existing law grants to various local entities the right, title,
and interest of the State of California in and to certain tidelands
and submerged lands in trust generally for purposes of commerce,
navigation, and fisheries, and for other public trust purposes.
This bill would require each local trustee of granted
public trust lands, as defined, to give management priority to, and
take all reasonable actions that are necessary for, the preparation
of a sea level action plan for all of its legislatively granted
public trust lands. The bill would require a local trustee to prepare
the plan by January 1, 2013, and submit the plan to the State Lands
Commission which would make the plan available to the public on its
Web site specify that the preparation of a sea
level action plan for all of its legislatively granted public
trust lands shall be among the management priorities of a local
trustee of granted public lands, as defined. The bill would require a
local trustee whose gross public trust revenues, as defined, exceed
$250,000 to prepare a sea level action plan for those lands by July
1, 2013, but would specify that all other local trustees may, but are
not required to, prepare a plan . The bill would require the
plan to include, among other things, an assessment of the impact of
a range of sea level rise on granted public trust lands,
an estimate of the financial cost of this impact, and strategies to
prevent or mitigate damage to development and infrastructure and to
protect and enhance habitat.
This bill would require the State Lands Commission to exempt a
local trustee of granted public trust lands from the requirement to
prepare a sea level action plan or grant a deadline extension if the
revenues derived from its granted public trust lands and assets or
funding to it from other sources such as the
Ocean Protection Council are not sufficient to pay for the
cost of developing the plan.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) Upon admission to the United States, and as incident of its
sovereignty, the State of California received title to the tidelands,
submerged lands, and beds of navigable waterways within its borders
to be held subject to the public trust doctrine for statewide public
purposes, including commerce, navigation, fisheries, preservation of
lands in their natural state, and other recognized public trust uses.
(b) The state has made grants of public trust lands to over 80
local public entities, each of which manages the state's public trust
lands as trustee pursuant to the public trust doctrine, legislative
grants, the California Constitution, and other laws governing the
trust and the trustee's fiduciary responsibilities.
(c) A local trustee of granted public trust lands is charged with
managing the state's granted public trust lands on behalf of the
state for the benefit of all the people of California.
(d) As part of its fiduciary duty, a local trustee of granted
public trust lands is required to take reasonable steps under the
circumstances to take and keep control of and preserve the trust
property.
(e) The effects of climate change and sea level rise will have
significant implications for the state's economic and social future.
(1) Approximately 80 percent of California's 33
38 million residents live within 50 kilometers of the
Pacific Ocean.
(2) The coastal economy contributes more than $50 billion annually
to the State of California.
(3) Port activities alone in California generate an estimated $7
billion in state and local tax revenues annually and employ more than
one-half million people in California. Nationwide more than 2
million jobs are connected to California ports.
(4) Research funded by the state has shown that a 55-inch sea
level rise, with a 100-year storm event along the California coast
places approximately 480,000 people (based on population in 2009) and
nearly one hundred billion dollars ($100,000,000,000) of property at
risk.
(5) Coastal habitats, including wetlands and beaches, provide
important ecological, recreational, and scenic functions and values,
which are threatened by sea level rise, unless actions are taken to
effectively manage these habitats and adjacent lands.
(6) Many state entities, such as the Governor's Office of Planning
and Research, the Strategic Growth Council, the Ocean Protection
Council, the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development
Commission, the California Coastal Commission, and the State Lands
Commission have supported efforts to develop tools and to increase
accessibility to existing state data, and to provide additional data
and tools to help local, regional, and state agencies make informed
decisions.
(4)
(7) In 2007, more than 40 percent of the total
containerized cargo entering the United States arrived at California
ports, and almost 30 percent of the nation's exports left from
California ports.
(5)
(8) In 2002, cargo operations shut down at west coast
ports for 10 days, and the estimated loss to the national economy was
$1 billion per day.
(f) The use of revenues received from trust lands and trust assets
by a local trustee of granted public trust lands is limited by the
legislative grant, the public trust doctrine, and other laws
governing the trust. An evaluation of the impacts of sea level rise
on granted public trust lands is directly related to the operation
and management of these resources managed on behalf of the state by
local trustees and is, therefore, a purpose consistent with the
public trust for commerce, navigation, and fisheries, and the
applicable legislative grants.
(g) Whereas a local trustee of granted public trust lands holds
and manages its public trust property, including the lands and
revenue derived from that property, as a state asset for the benefit
of the people of California and cannot use the trust corpus for
general municipal purposes or other purposes not consistent with the
public trust doctrine and its legislative grant, and because the
State Lands Commission is provided with a mechanism in this act to
exempt a local trustee that does not have sufficient state funds,
either through the trust or other existing funding mechanisms, to pay
for the cost of developing a sea level action plan, there is no
state-mandated local program that results from the implementation of
this act.
SEC. 2. Section 6315 is added to the Public Resources Code, to
read:
6315. (a) For the purposes of this section, "a local trustee of
granted public trust lands" means a county, city, or district,
including water, sanitary, regional park, port, or harbor district,
or any other local political or corporate subdivision that has been
granted public trust lands through a legislative grant.
(b) A local trustee of granted public trust lands shall give
management priority to, and take all reasonable actions that are
necessary for, the preparation of a sea level action plan pursuant to
this section for all of its legislatively granted public trust
lands.
(c) The plan shall be prepared by July 1, 2013, and in
consideration of, and using relevant information contained in, the
2009 California Climate Adaptation Strategy prepared by the Natural
Resources Agency, the Report on Sea Level Rise Preparedness prepared
by the State Lands Commission, the Sea Level Rise Assessment Report
prepared by the National Academy of Science if the report becomes
available before the plan is due, and any subsequent updates to these
reports, and any other related resource. The plan shall include all
of the following:
(1) An assessment of the impact of sea level rise on granted
public trust lands.
(b) For purposes of this section, "gross public trust revenues"
means those gross revenues that are subject to subdivision (b) of
Section 6306.
(c) The preparation of a sea level action plan for all of its
legislatively granted public trust lands pursuant to this section
shall be among the management priorities of a local trustee of
granted public lands. The geographic scope of a local trustee's sea
level action plan is not required to go beyond the local trustee's
granted public trust lands.
(d) For a local trustee whose gross public trust revenues exceed
two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000), the sea level action
plan shall be prepared by July 1, 2013. All other local trustees may,
but are not required to, prepare a plan.
(e) (1) A sea level action plan shall consider and use relevant
information from the 2009 California Climate Adaptation Strategy
prepared by the Natural Resources Agency, the Report on Sea Level
Rise Preparedness prepared by the State Lands Commission, the Sea
Level Rise Assessment Report prepared by the National Academy of
Sciences if the report becomes available at least six months prior to
the date the plan is due, the resolution of the California Ocean
Protection Council on Sea-Level Rise and the State of California
Sea-Level Rise Interim Guidance Document and any subsequent updates
to those reports that become available 6 months prior to the date the
plan is due, and any other related resource. The plan shall include
all of the following:
(1) An assessment of the impact of a range of sea level rise on
granted public trust lands, as described in the Resolution of the
California Ocean Protection Council on Sea-level Rise and the latest
version of the State of California Sea-Level Rise Interim Guidance
Document.
(2) Maps showing the areas that may be affected by sea level rise
in the years 2050 and 2100. These maps shall include the potential
impacts of 100-year storm events. A trustee may rely on appropriate
maps generated by other entities.
(3) An estimate of the financial cost of the impact of sea level
rise on granted public trust lands. The estimate shall consider, but
is not limited to, both the potential cost of repair of damage to and
value of lost use of improvements and land and the anticipated cost
to prevent or mitigate potential damage.
(4) Strategies to prevent or mitigate damage to existing
development and infrastructure, and to protect and enhance
undeveloped, vulnerable shoreline areas containing critical habitat
and opportunities for habitat creation, including wetland
restoration, habitat migration, or the creation of buffer zones on
granted public trust lands. When developing these
strategies, especially along the coastline, a grantee shall consider
feasible, nonengineered measures, such as coastal setback lines and
managed retreat of structures. These strategies shall
consider, but are not limited to, feasible, nonengineered measures.
(5) Design standards that would avoid or mitigate impacts to new
development and infrastructure.
(6) Implementation measures and timetables.
(d)
(f) In preparing a sea level action plan, a local
trustee shall conduct at least one public hearing and consult with
its lessees, local, state, and federal agencies, and other users of
the granted public trust lands.
(e)
(g) A copy of the plan shall be submitted to the
commission in hard copy and electronic form. The commission shall
make the plan available to the public on its Internet Web site and,
for informational purposes, send an electronic copy to each member of
the Climate Action Team, the Climate Change Program Manager in the
office of the Secretary for Environmental Protection, and the
Governor's Office of Planning and Research.
(f) The commission may
(h) The commission shall exempt a
local trustee of granted public trust lands from this section or
allow a local trustee to submit a modified sea level action plan if
the commission finds either of the following:
(1) None of the local trustee's public trust lands is subject to
sea level rise by 2100 , based upon the highest projections in
the most recent version of the State of California Sea-Level Rise
Guidance Document .
(2) The cost to provide the plan substantially outweighs the
benefit the plan would have in preventing the potential economic and
environmental harms associated with sea level rise on the local
trustee's granted public trust lands.
(g)
(i) The commission shall exempt a local trustee of
granted public trust lands from this section or grant a deadline
extension if the revenues derived from its granted public trust lands
and assets subject to subdivision (b) of Section 6306 or funding
made available to it from sources such as the Ocean
Protection Council other sources are not
sufficient to pay for the cost of developing the plan.
(h)
(j) The commission shall consider a local trustee's
request for an exemption pursuant to subdivision (f) or (g)
(h) or (i) at a properly noticed commission
meeting if the request is made before November 1, 2012.
(k) This section does not require a local trustee to implement the
sea level rise plan it develops pursuant to this section.
(i)
(l) Nothing in this section shall be construed to
conflict with Title 14 or Title 50 of the Code of Federal
Regulations.