BILL NUMBER: AB 691	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 22, 2013
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MARCH 11, 2013

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Muratsuchi

                        FEBRUARY 21, 2013

   An act to add Section 6311.5 to the Public Resources Code,
relating to state lands.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 691, as amended, Muratsuchi. State lands: granted trust lands:
sea level rise.
   Existing law vests with the State Lands Commission control over
specified state lands, including tidelands and submerged lands.
Existing law grants to various local entities the right, title, and
interest of the state 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 provide that addressing the impacts from sea level
rise for all of its legislatively granted public trust lands shall
be among the management priorities of a local trustee, as defined.
The bill would require a local trustee whose gross public trust
revenues  exceed   average over  $250,000
 annually between January 1, 2009, and January 1, 2014,  to
prepare and submit to the commission, no later than July 1, 2019,
except as provided, an assessment of how it proposes to address sea
level rise. The bill would permit, but not require, a local trustee
whose gross public trust revenues are $250,000 or less to prepare and
submit to the commission an assessment. The bill would require a
local trustee to consider and use relevant information from specified
reports on sea level rise in preparing the assessment  and would
permit a trustee that has already completed an assessment on the
impacts of sea level rise to submit that assessment to the commission
 . The bill would require that the commission make those
assessments available to the public on its Internet Web  Site
  site  , and send electronic copies to certain
other public entities.
   By adding to the duties of local agencies that are local trustees
of granted public trust lands, this bill would impose a
state-mandated local program.
   The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
   This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.


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, open space, wildlife habitat,
water-oriented recreation, 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 common law public trust doctrine,
statutory 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
enormous implications for the state's economic and social future, and
have the potential to have a wide range of impacts to critical
infrastructure, such as schools, roads, hospitals, emergency
facilities, wastewater treatment plants, airports, ports, and energy
facilities.
   (f) Coastal counties in California are home to approximately
 32 million     32,000,000 
people.
   (g) The coastal economy contributes more than $50 billion annually
to the State of California.
   (h) Port activities in California generate an estimated $7 billion
in state and local tax revenues annually and employ more than
 one-half million   500,000  people in
California. Nationwide more than two million jobs are connected to
California ports.
   (i) 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.
   (j) In 2002, cargo operations shutdown at west coast ports for 10
days, and the estimated loss to the national economy was $1 billion
per day.
   (k) 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 the population in 2009)
and nearly $100 billion of property at risk.
   (l) 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.
   (m) 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 about sea level rise.
   (n) The use of revenues received from trust lands and trust assets
by a local trustee of granted public trust lands is limited by the
statutory 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
statutory grants.
   (o) Because 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 statutory 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 assessing the impacts of sea level rise, Section 6311.5
of the Public Resources Code, as added by this act, will not impose
costs on local governments.
  SEC. 2.  Section 6311.5 is added to the Public Resources Code, to
read:
   6311.5.  (a) For the purposes of this section, the following terms
shall have the following meanings:
   (1) "Local trustee" means a local trustee of granted public trust
lands that is 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.
   (2) "Gross public trust revenues" means those gross revenues that
are subject to subdivision  (b)   (c)  of
Section 6306.
   (b) Addressing the impacts from sea level rise for all of its
legislatively granted public trust lands pursuant to this section
shall be among the management priorities of a local trustee. The
geographic scope of a local trustee's assessment of the impacts from
sea level rise is not required to go beyond the boundaries of the
local trustee's granted public trust lands.
   (c) A local trustee, whose gross public trust revenues 
exceed   average over  two hundred fifty thousand
dollars ($250,000)  annually between January 1, 2009, until
January 1, 2014  , shall prepare and submit to the commission,
no later than July 1, 2019, an assessment of how the local trustee
proposes to address sea level rise. A local trustee whose gross
public trust revenues are two hundred fifty thousand dollars
($250,000) or less may, but is not required to, prepare and submit to
the commission an assessment.
   (d) For the purposes of subdivision (c), a local trustee 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 for the Coasts of California,
Oregon, and Washington: Past, Present, and Future, a report prepared
by the National Academy of Sciences, 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 six months prior to the date the assessment is required to
be submitted to the commission. A local trustee's assessment prepared
pursuant to subdivision (c) 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 2030, 2050, and 2100. These maps shall include the
potential impacts of 100-year storm events. A local 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, the potential cost of repair of damage to and the
value of lost use of improvements and land, and the anticipated cost
to prevent or mitigate potential damage.
   (4) A description of how the local trustee proposes to protect and
preserve natural and manmade resources and facilities located, or
proposed to be located, on trust lands and operated in connection
with the use of the trust lands.
   (e) In addressing the impacts from sea level rise, a local trustee
shall collaborate with its lessees, appropriate local, state, and
federal agencies, and other users of the granted public trust lands.
   (f)  (1)    A local trustee that prepares an
assessment pursuant to subdivision (c) shall submit a copy to the
commission in hard copy and electronic form. The commission shall
make the assessment available to the public on its Internet Web Site
and, for informational purposes, shall 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. 
   (2) For purposes of compliance with this subdivision, if a trustee
has already completed an assessment of the impacts of sea level rise
that meets the criteria of this section, the trustee may submit that
assessment to the commission. 
   (g) The commission shall exempt a local trustee of granted public
trust lands from this section if the commission finds either of the
following:
   (1) The local trustee's public trust lands are not 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 an assessment of how the local trustee
proposes to address the impacts of sea level rise substantially
outweighs the benefit the action would have in preventing the
potential economic and environmental harms associated with sea level
rise on the local trustee's granted public trust lands.
   (h) The commission shall exempt a local trustee from this section
if the revenues derived from its granted public trust lands and
assets subject to subdivision  (b)   (c) 
of Section 6306 or funding made available to it from other 
discretionary  sources is not sufficient to pay for the cost of
assessing the impacts of sea level rise on granted public trust land
and providing this information to the commission.
   (i) The commission shall consider a local trustee's request for an
exemption pursuant to subdivision (g) or (h) at a properly noticed
commission meeting if the request is made before November 1, 2018.
   (j) Other than submission of the assessment required by
subdivision (c), this section does not require a local trustee to
implement any specific actions to address sea level rise pursuant to
this section.
   (k) Nothing in this section shall be construed to conflict with
any federal regulations governing sea level rise.
  SEC. 3.  No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because
the costs incurred by a local agency to pay for the program of level
of service mandated by this act, within the meaning of Section 17556
of the Government Code, will be paid solely from the revenues derived
from the public trust lands and assets that are granted to that
local agency by the state.