BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 618|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 618
Author: Wolk (D), et al.
Amended: 9/8/11
Vote: 21
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE : 9-0, 4/27/11
AYES: Wolk, Huff, DeSaulnier, Fuller, Hancock, Hernandez,
Kehoe, La Malfa, Liu
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 8-0, 5/26/11
AYES: Kehoe, Walters, Alquist, Lieu, Pavley, Price,
Runner, Steinberg
NO VOTE RECORDED: Emmerson
SENATE FLOOR : 39-0, 6/2/11
AYES: Alquist, Anderson, Berryhill, Blakeslee, Calderon,
Cannella, Corbett, Correa, De León, DeSaulnier, Dutton,
Emmerson, Evans, Fuller, Gaines, Hancock, Harman,
Hernandez, Huff, Kehoe, La Malfa, Leno, Lieu, Liu,
Lowenthal, Negrete McLeod, Padilla, Pavley, Price, Rubio,
Simitian, Steinberg, Strickland, Vargas, Walters, Wolk,
Wright, Wyland, Yee
NO VOTE RECORDED: Runner
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : Not available
SUBJECT : Local government: solar-use easement
SOURCE : Author
CONTINUED
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DIGEST : This bill authorizes a city or county and a
landowner to simultaneously rescind a Williamson Act
contract on marginally productive or physically impaired
lands and enter into a solar-use easement that restricts
the use of land to photovoltaic solar facilities, as
specified.
Assembly Amendments (1) delete language in the Senate
version relating to the Permit Streamlining Act, (2) make
clarifying language concerning the solar-use easement, (3)
require the county assessor to consider when valuing real
property for property taxation purposes, solar-use
easements, (4) expand the Department of Fish and Game's
authorization to grant permits to take fully protected
species, if those species are covered and conserved in a
Natural Communities Conservation Plan, and (5) add
coauthors.
ANALYSIS : Existing law, the California Land Conservation
Act of 1965 (Williamson Act), authorizes landowners to sign
10-year contracts with counties, agreeing to restrict a
property's use to agriculture, open space, or compatible
uses. In return for the agreement to keep the land out of
development, the landowner benefits from reduced property
tax assessments based on the property's use rather than its
market value. These contracts renew automatically each
year, unless the contract is ended through nonrenewal,
cancellation, or termination. Under nonrenewal, either the
landowner or the county may provide notice to not renew the
contract. When the term of the contract runs out after
nine years, the property is reassessed at its market value
and land restrictions end. County officials can cancel a
Williamson Act contract at a landowner's request if the
board of supervisors finds that cancellation is consistent
with the Act's purpose or in the public interest. A
contract ends immediately upon cancellation and payment of
cancellation fees by the landowner to the state in an
amount equal to 12.5 percent of the property's unrestricted
value. A contract can be rescinded when a board of
supervisors cancels a Williamson Act contract and the
landowner simultaneously enters into an agricultural
conservation easement on other land of an equal or greater
value.
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This bill:
1. Expands the Department of Fish and Game's (DFG)
authorization to grant permits to take Fully Protected
Species (FPS) if those species are covered and conserved
in a Natural Communities Conservation Plan (NCCP).
2. Defines solar-use easement as any rights or interests
acquired by a city or county in perpetuity or a term of
years that restricts the use of land to a solar
facility, with the purpose to provide for the collection
and distribution of solar energy for electricity
generation, as specified.
3. Defines land eligible for a solar-use easement under the
Act, as meeting the following criteria:
A. The land meets either of the following:
(1) Land consisting predominately of soil with
significantly reduced agriculture productivity for
agriculture activities, as specified.
(2) Land that has severely adverse soil
conditions that are detrimental to agricultural
activities and production, as specified.
B. Requires the parcel to not be located on prime
farmland, unique farmland, or land of statewide
importance as determined by the Farmland Mapping and
Monitoring Program of the California Natural
Resources Agency (NRA), unless the Department of
Conservation (DOC) determines that the parcel is
eligible for a photovoltaic (PV) easement based on
circumstances that cause limited agricultural use for
the parcel. Requires lands designated as important
farmland not to be reclassified due to irrigation
status.
4. Requires the landowners requesting a PV easement to
provide DOC with the following information, if
applicable:
A. A written explanation why the land, even under
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best management practices, is agriculturally
unproductive.
B. A recent soil test showing characteristics that
make the land agriculturally unproductive.
C. An analysis showing water availability on the
land.
D. An analysis of water quality on the land.
E. Crop and yield information for the past six years.
5. Requires the landowner to provide to DOC a proposed
management plan for the life of the PV easement
describing soil management, minimizing impact on
adjacent agriculture operations, and plans to restore
the land to its previous condition when the easement
ends. Requires the landowner, when a local government
approves a solar easement, to implement the management
plan if the land is deemed eligible by DOC, as
specified.
6. Allows DOC to establish a fee, to be paid by the
landowner, to recover the estimated cost incurred by DOC
in the consultation a solar easement.
7. Requires a solar-use easement to be officially recorded
with the county assessor.
8. Authorizes any county or city to enter into an agreement
with a landowner to hold marginally productive or
physically impaired land in a solar-use easement for a
term of 20 years, unless the landowner request a shorter
term, that may not be less than 10 years.
9. Requires the landowner to pay an Act cancellation fee
equal to 6.25 percent of the fair market valuation of
the land when placing Act land into a solar-use
easement, unless the land is designated as a Farmland
Security Zone (FSZ). FSZ land must pay a cancellation
fee of 12.5 percent.
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10.Authorizes DOC to adopt regulations regarding the
implementation of the provisions of this bill.
11.Defines a PV system to include all parts and materials
that enable the generation and use of solar electricity;
any monitoring, control, safety, conversion and
emergency responder equipment, equipment to connect to
electrical services, and equipment to connect to the
electric grid.
12.Requires reclamation, closure, remediation, or
corrective action required in previous permits,
mitigation plans, or as a condition of a previous
project approval related to this project site, to be
carried out and determined to be complete by the
responsible agency prior to implementation of a PV
system project approval.
13.Requires the proposed PV system project land to be
determined by a qualified biologist to have no
significant habitat value as detailed in a complete
biological resource survey consistence with survey
protocols recommended by DFG. The CEQA exemption would
not apply if the project would otherwise require one of
the following:
A. A new individual federal permit under the Federal
Clean Water Act or a new individual water discard
permit under the porter-Cologne Water Quality Control
Act.
B. A new individual take permit for species under the
federal or California Endangered Species Act.
C. A streambed alteration permit.
14.Allows DOC, in consultation with the Department of Food
and Agriculture, to determine if agricultural land is
suitable for a CEQA exemption for a PV system project,
if it meets the requirements detailed in #3 through #5
above.
15.Allows the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency to
further refine and limit the categories of lands allowed
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a CEQA exemption for PV system projects.
16.Requires PV system project to be on 320 acres or less.
Prohibits successive applications for proposed PV
systems on adjacent parcels subject to common ownership
and control.
17.States that landowners are not exempt from obligation
imposed by other laws.
18.Repeals the CEQA exemptions for PV systems on January 1,
2018.
Comments
According to the author's office, as the state strives to
meet its new, ambitious, 33% Renewables Portfolio Standard
(RPS), counties and landowners are left struggling to
balance the competing needs of large-scale solar PV
development and protecting critical habitat and farmland.
The state has invested for decades in protecting important
farmland through subvention payments under the Act. Now
those lands are being targeted for development. Meanwhile,
there are millions of acres of degraded and economically
unproductive lands that are better suited for PV energy
production and have fewer environmental impacts.
The author's office states this bill establishes clear
policy directions to bring projects proposed for degraded
lands on line faster and cheaper. These policies will lead
to greater job creation, help the state reach its RPS
goals, and ensure that California continues to feed the
nation by protected our most valuable agricultural lands.
This bill accomplishes this goal by allowing landowners to
rescind an Act contract by placing the land into a new
solar-use easement and a limited and precisely written
exemption for appropriately sited PV system projects from
CEQA.
Recent amendments to this bill define agricultural lands
that would be suitable for a solar use easement. The land
needs to limited values for agricultural production and not
be prime farmland, unique farmland or farmland that is of
statewide importance (important farmland). DOC may
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determine that some important farmland is eligible for a
solar-use easement if it can be shown that the land has
limited use for agricultural activities. According to the
author's office, this gives landowners a clear path to
terminate their contracts, while ensuring the state retains
an interest in the lands taxpayers have invested in for
decades through subvention payments.
Recent amendments to this bill define new CEQA exemptions
for PV system projects. The exemptions apply to lands that
are degraded and economically unproductive, such as
clean-up superfund sites, land near airports and specified
agricultural land. Agricultural land eligible for this
exemption have the same limitation as land open to solar
use easement, with the added restriction that the
agricultural land has limited habitat value. The
exemptions only apply for PV system projects on a maximum
of 320 acres. The author's office states that this policy
will encourage solar companies to seek out more degraded
lands to locate PV system projects.
According to the author's office, this is another tool that
allows PV system projects to opt to be part of NCCP. The
author's office states that the expanded DFG authorization
to grant permits to take FPS, if those species are covered
and conserved in a NCCP, finds the elusive middle ground
between important land use protections and unreasonable
bureaucratic impediments in existing programs. The
expansion of authorization to take FPS is not limited to PV
system projects.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 5/26/11) (Unable to reverify at time
of writing)
California Farm Bureau Federation
Trust for Public Land
Westland Solar Park
AGB/DLW:mw 9/9/11 Senate Floor Analyses
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SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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