BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 691
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 691 (Muratsuchi)
As Amended August 12, 2013
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |51-21|(May 23, 2013) |SENATE: |24-13|(September 6, |
| | | | | |2013) |
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Original Committee Reference: NAT. RES.
SUMMARY : Requires a local trustee of granted public trust lands
whose annual 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 (sea
level rise assessment).
The Senate amendments :
1)Requires the sea level rise assessment to also include a
description on how wetlands restoration and habitat
preservation would mitigate impacts of sea level rise.
2)Requires the Commission, in determining whether a local
trustee should be exempt from this bill due to costs
substantially outweighing benefits, to consider the economic
benefits of all ecological services provided by the existing
natural resources in the local trustee's granted public trust
lands.
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
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administrative control over the state's public trust lands and
oversight authority over public trust lands granted in trust
by the Legislature to local governments (local trustees).
3)Grants, in trust, state public trust lands to over 80 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.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
COMMENTS : 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 Council, 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.
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 Public Resources Code Section 6009.1). To assist in
avoiding such a breach, this bill will require a local trustee
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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.
Analysis Prepared by : Mario DeBernardo / NAT. RES. / (916)
319-2092
FN: 0001798