BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 691
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Date of Hearing: April 29, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
Wesley Chesbro, Chair
AB 691 (Muratsuchi) - As Amended: April 22, 2013
SUBJECT : State lands: granted trust lands: sea level rise
SUMMARY : Requires a local trustee of granted public trust lands
whose gross public trust revenues exceed $250,000 to prepare and
submit to the State Lands Commission (Commission) an assessment
of how it proposes to address sea level rise.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Protects, pursuant to the common law doctrine of the Public
Trust (Public Trust Doctrine), the public's right to use
California's waterways for commerce, navigation, fishing,
boating, natural habitat protection, and other water oriented
activities. The Public Trust Doctrine provides that filled
and unfilled tide and submerged lands and the beds of lakes,
streams, and other navigable waterways (i.e. public trust
lands) are to be held in trust by the state for the benefit of
the people of California.
2)Establishes that the Commission is the steward and manager of
the state's public trust lands. The Commission has direct
administrative control over the state's public trust lands and
oversight authority over public trust lands granted by the
Legislature to local governments.
3)Grants, in trust, state public trust lands to over 80 local
public agencies (local trustees) to be managed for the benefit
of all the people of the state and pursuant to the Public
Trust Doctrine and terms of the applicable granting statutes.
4)Recognizes a local trustee's fiduciary duty to take reasonable
steps under the circumstances to take and keep control of and
to preserve the trust property.
THIS BILL :
1)Defines "local trustee" as 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
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any other local political or corporate subdivision that has
been granted public trust lands through a legislative grant.
2)Establishes that 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.
3)By July 1, 2019, requires a local trustee whose gross public
trust revenues average over $250,000 annually between January
1, 2009 until January 1, 2014 to prepare and submit to the
Commission an assessment of how it proposes to address sea
level rise (sea level rise assessment).
4)In preparing the sea level rise assessment, requires a local
trustee to 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, 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.
5)Requires the sea level rise assessment to include all of the
following:
a) 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;
b) 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;
c) An estimate of the financial cost of the impact of sea
level rise on granted public trust lands. The estimate
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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; and
d) 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.
6)Requires a local trustee that prepares a sea level rise
assessment to submit a copy to the Commission. If a local
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.
7)Requires the Commission to make the sea level rise assessments
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
at the office of the Secretary for Environmental Protection,
and the Governor's Office of Planning and Research.
8)Requires the Commission to exempt a local trustee from
preparing a sea level rise assessment if the Commission finds
any of the following:
a) 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;
b) 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; or
c) The revenues derived from its granted public trust lands
and assets 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.
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9)Requires the Commission to consider a local trustee's request
for an exemption at a properly noticed Commission meeting if
the request is made before November 1, 2018.
10)FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
1)Background. For over 100 years, the Legislature has granted
public trust lands to local trustees so they can be managed
locally for the benefit of the people of California. There
are over 80 trustees in the state, including the ports of Los
Angeles, Long Beach, San Diego, San Francisco, Oakland,
Richmond, Benicia, and Eureka. While these trust lands are
managed locally, the Commission has oversight authority to
ensure those local trustees are complying with the Public
Trust Doctrine and the applicable granting statutes.
Sea level rise is an issue that has far reaching consequences
for public trust lands held by local trustees. Sea level rise
threatens coastal communities and infrastructure, including
transportation facilities, electric utility systems and power
plants, storm water systems and wastewater treatment plants
and outfalls, vast areas of wetlands, and many other human and
natural systems. According to research funded in part by the
California Ocean Protection Counsel, a 55 inch sea level rise,
with a 100 year storm event along the California coast places
approximately 480,000 people and nearly $100 billion of
property at risk.
On August 10, 2009, as part of its oversight responsibilities,
the Commission sent out 104 surveys regarding sea level rise
to all of its grantees and lessees of major facilities along
the coast and San Francisco Bay. The survey included
questions related to identifying existing facilities and the
life expectancy of these facilities; whether the respondent
has considered the effect of sea level rise on its facilities;
how its facilities would be impacted by a sea level rise of
16" and 55" (projected increases in sea level by the years
2050 and 2100); what actions the respondents were considering
to address sea level rise, including an estimate of cost; and
whether the respondents were considering adaptation strategies
to mitigate for sea level rise. Of the 104 surveys sent out,
only 40 responses were received. A majority of these
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responses provided information indicating that trustees had
not yet begun to comprehensively consider the impacts of sea
level rise.
On July 23, 2010, Commission staff resurveyed its grantees and
lessees. Twenty-seven responses were received, of which 13
were first responders. Approximately half of these responses
indicated that no action to address sea level rise had been
considered.
A local trustee's failure to plan for sea level rise may be
considered a breach of its trust responsibilities since the
trustee has a fiduciary duty to the people of California to
take reasonable steps under the circumstances to take and keep
control of and to preserve the trust property (this duty is
codified in section 6009.1 of the Public Resource Code). To
assist in avoiding such a breach, this bill will require a
local trustee to assess the impacts of sea level rise on
granted public trust lands and describe how the local trustee
proposes to protect those lands. The local trustee is in the
best position to conduct this assessment because it has the
administrative control over its granted trust land and, in
most cases, generates revenues off of the land, which must be
used for purposes such as managing and preserving the trust
assets.
2)CEQA. According to section 15262 of the CEQA Guidelines, a
project involving only feasibility or planning studies for
possible future actions which the agency, board, or commission
has not approved, adopted, or funded does not require the
preparation of an environmental impact report or negative
declaration. A sea level rise assessment required by this
bill appears to fall under this feasibility or planning
studies provision.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Coastkeeper Alliance
California State Lands Commission Staff
Heal the Bay
Sierra Club California
Surfrider Foundation
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Opposition
California State Association of Counties
League of California Cities
Analysis Prepared by : Mario DeBernardo / NAT. RES. / (916)
319-2092