Amended in Senate July 1, 2013

Amended in Assembly April 22, 2013

Amended in Assembly March 11, 2013

California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly BillNo. 691


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 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, 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:

P2    1

SECTION 1.  

The Legislature finds and declares all of the
2following:

3(a) Upon admission to the United States, and as incident of its
4sovereignty, the State of California received title to the tidelands,
5submerged lands, and beds of navigable waterways within its
6borders to be held subject to the public trust doctrine for statewide
7public purposes, including commerce, navigation, fisheries,
8preservation of lands in their natural state, open space, wildlife
9habitat, water-oriented recreation, and other recognized public
10trust uses.

11(b) The state has made grants of public trust lands to over 80
12local public entities, each of which manages the state’s public trust
13lands as trustee pursuant to the common law public trust doctrine,
14statutory grants, the California Constitution, and other laws
15governing the trust and the trustee’s fiduciary responsibilities.

16(c) A local trustee of granted public trust lands is charged with
17managing the state’s granted public trust lands on behalf of the
18state for the benefit of all the people of California.

P3    1(d) As part of its fiduciary duty, a local trustee of granted public
2trust lands is required to take reasonable steps under the
3circumstances to take and keep control of and preserve the trust
4property.

5(e) The effects of climate change and sea level rise will have
6enormous implications for the state’s economic and social future,
7and have the potential to have a wide range of impacts to critical
8infrastructure, such as schools, roads, hospitals, emergency
9 facilities, wastewater treatment plants, airports, ports, and energy
10facilities.

11(f) Coastal counties in California are home to approximately
1232,000,000 people.

13(g) The coastal economy contributes more than $50 billion
14annually to the State of California.

15(h) Port activities in California generate an estimated $7 billion
16in state and local tax revenues annually and employ more than
17 500,000 people in California. Nationwide more than two million
18jobs are connected to California ports.

19(i) In 2007, more than 40 percent of the total containerized cargo
20entering the United States arrived at California ports, and almost
2130 percent of the nation’s exports left from California ports.

22(j) In 2002, cargo operationsbegin delete shutdownend deletebegin insert shut downend insert at west coast
23ports for 10 days, and the estimated loss to the national economy
24was $1 billion per day.

25(k) Research funded by the state has shown that a 55-inch sea
26level rise, with a 100-year storm event along the California coast,
27places approximately 480,000 people (based on the population in
282009) and nearly $100 billion of property at risk.

29(l) Coastal habitats, including wetlands and beaches, provide
30important ecological, recreational, and scenic functions and values,
31which are threatened by sea level rise, unless actions are taken to
32effectively manage these habitats and adjacent lands.

33(m) Many state entities, such as the Governor’s Office of
34Planning and Research, the Strategic Growth Council, the Ocean
35Protection Council, the San Francisco Bay Conservation and
36Development Commission, the California Coastal Commission,
37and the State Lands Commission have supported efforts to develop
38tools and to increase accessibility to existing state data, and to
39provide additional data and tools to help local, regional, and state
40agencies make informed decisions about sea level rise.

P4    1(n) The use of revenues received from trust lands and trust assets
2by a local trustee of granted public trust lands is limited by the
3statutory grant, the public trust doctrine, and other laws governing
4the trust. An evaluation of the impacts of sea level rise on granted
5public trust lands is directly related to the operation and
6management of these resources managed on behalf of the state by
7local trustees and is, therefore, a purpose consistent with the public
8trust for commerce, navigation, and fisheries, and the applicable
9statutory grants.

10(o) Because a local trustee of granted public trust lands holds
11and manages its public trust property, including the lands and
12revenue derived from that property, as a state asset for the benefit
13of the people of California and cannot use the trust corpus for
14general municipal purposes or other purposes not consistent with
15the public trust doctrine and its statutory grant, and because the
16State Lands Commission is provided with a mechanism in this act
17to exempt a local trustee that does not have sufficient state funds,
18either through the trust or other existing funding mechanisms, to
19pay for the cost of assessing the impacts of sea level rise, Section
206311.5 of the Public Resources Code, as added by this act, will
21not impose costs on local governments.

22

SEC. 2.  

Section 6311.5 is added to the Public Resources Code,
23to read:

24

6311.5.  

(a) For the purposes of this section, the following
25terms shall have the following meanings:

26(1) “Local trustee” means a local trustee of granted public trust
27lands that is a county, city, or district, including water, sanitary,
28regional park, port, or harbor district, or any other local political
29or corporate subdivision that has been granted public trust lands
30through a legislative grant.

31(2) “Gross public trust revenues” means those gross revenues
32that are subject to subdivision (c) of Section 6306.

33(b) Addressing the impacts from sea level rise for all of its
34legislatively granted public trust lands pursuant to this section shall
35be among the management priorities of a local trustee. The
36geographic scope of a local trustee’s assessment of the impacts
37from sea level rise is not required to go beyond the boundaries of
38the local trustee’s granted public trust lands.

39(c) A local trustee, whose gross public trust revenues average
40over two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) annually
P5    1between January 1, 2009,begin delete untilend deletebegin insert andend insert January 1, 2014, shall prepare
2and submit to the commission, no later than July 1, 2019, an
3assessment of how the local trustee proposes to address sea level
4rise. A local trustee whose gross public trust revenues are two
5hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) or less may, but is not
6required to, prepare and submit to the commission an assessment.

7(d) For the purposes of subdivision (c), a local trustee shall
8consider and use relevant information from the 2009 California
9Climate Adaptation Strategy prepared by the Natural Resources
10Agency, the Report on Sea Level Rise Preparedness prepared by
11the State Lands Commission, the Sea-Level Rise for the Coasts of
12California, Oregon, and Washington: Past, Present, and Future, a
13report prepared by the National Academy of Sciences, the
14Resolution of the California Ocean Protection Council on
15Sea-Level Rise, the State of California Sea-Level Rise Interim
16Guidance Document, and any subsequent updates to those reports
17that become available six months prior to the date the assessment
18is required to be submitted to the commission. A local trustee’s
19assessment prepared pursuant to subdivision (c) shall include all
20of the following:

21(1) An assessment of the impact of a range of sea level rise on
22granted public trust lands, as described in the Resolution of the
23California Ocean Protection Council on Sea-level Rise and the
24latest version of the State of California Sea-Level Rise Interim
25Guidance Document.

26(2) Maps showing the areas that may be affected by sea level
27rise in the years 2030, 2050, and 2100. These maps shall include
28the potential impacts of 100-year storm events. A local trustee may
29rely on appropriate maps generated by other entities.

30(3) An estimate of the financial cost of the impact of sea level
31rise on granted public trust lands. The estimate shall consider, but
32is not limited to, the potential cost of repair of damage to and the
33value of lost use of improvements and land, and the anticipated
34cost to prevent or mitigate potential damage.

35(4) A description of how the local trustee proposes to protect
36and preserve natural and manmade resources and facilities located,
37or proposed to be located, on trust lands and operated in connection
38with the use of the trust lands.

P6    1(e) In addressing the impacts from sea level rise, a local trustee
2shall collaborate with its lessees, appropriate local, state, and
3federal agencies, and other users of the granted public trust lands.

4(f) (1) A local trustee that prepares an assessment pursuant to
5subdivision (c) shall submit a copy to the commission in hard copy
6and electronic form. The commission shall make the assessment
7available to the public on its Internet Webbegin delete Siteend deletebegin insert siteend insert and, for
8informational purposes, shall send an electronic copy to each
9member of the Climate Action Team, the climate change program
10manager in the office of the Secretary for Environmental
11Protection, and the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research.

12(2) For purposes of compliance with this subdivision, if a trustee
13 has already completed an assessment of the impacts of sea level
14rise that meets the criteria of this section, the trustee may submit
15that assessment to the commission.

16(g) The commission shall exempt a local trustee of granted
17public trust lands from this section if the commission finds either
18of the following:

19(1) The local trustee’s public trust lands are not subject to sea
20level rise by 2100, based upon the highest projections in the most
21recent version of the State of California Sea-Level Rise Guidance
22Document.

23(2) The cost to provide an assessment of how the local trustee
24proposes to address the impacts of sea level rise substantially
25outweighs the benefit the action would have in preventing the
26potential economic and environmental harms associated with sea
27level rise on the local trustee’s granted public trust lands.begin insert In making
28this determination, the economic benefits of all ecological services
29provided by the existing natural resources in the local trustee’s
30granted public trust lands shall be considered.end insert

31(h) The commission shall exempt a local trustee from this section
32if the revenues derived from its granted public trust lands and
33assets subject to subdivision (c) of Section 6306 or funding made
34available to it from other discretionary sources is not sufficient to
35pay for the cost of assessing the impacts of sea level rise on granted
36public trust land and providing this information to the commission.

37(i) The commission shall consider a local trustee’s request for
38an exemption pursuant to subdivision (g) or (h) at a properly
39noticed commission meeting if the request is made before
40November 1, 2018.

P7    1(j) Other than submission of the assessment required by
2subdivision (c), this section does not require a local trustee to
3implement any specific actions to address sea level rise pursuant
4to this section.

5(k) Nothing in this section shall be construed to conflict with
6any federal regulations governing sea level rise.

7

SEC. 3.  

No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
8Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because
9the costs incurred by a local agency to pay for the programbegin delete ofend deletebegin insert orend insert
10 level of service mandated by this act, within the meaning of Section
1117556 of the Government Code, will be paid solely from the
12revenues derived from the public trust lands and assets that are
13granted to that local agency by the state.



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