BILL NUMBER: AB 929	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Jones

                        FEBRUARY 22, 2013

   An act to amend Section 4210 of the Public Resources Code,
relating to state responsibility areas.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 929, as introduced, Jones. State responsibility areas:
structures: fees.
   Existing law states that the Legislature finds and declares that
fire protection of public trust resources on lands in state
responsibility areas remains a vital interest to California and that
it is necessary to impose a fire prevention fee to pay for fire
prevention activities in the state responsibility areas that
specifically benefit owners of structures in the areas.
   This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to that
law.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 4210 of the Public Resources Code is amended to
read:
   4210.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
   (a) Fire protection of  the  public trust
resources on lands in  the  state responsibility
areas remains a vital interest to California. Lands that are covered
in whole or in part by a diverse plant community prevent excessive
erosion, retard runoff, reduce sedimentation, and accelerate water
percolation to assist in the maintenance of critical sources of water
for environmental, irrigation, domestic, or industrial uses.
   (b) The presence of structures within state responsibility areas
can pose an increased risk of fire ignition and an increased
potential for fire damage within the state's wildlands and
watersheds. The presence of structures within state responsibility
areas can also impair wild land firefighting techniques and could
result in greater damage to state lands caused by wildfires.
   (c) The costs of fire prevention activities aimed at reducing the
effects of structures in state responsibility areas should be borne
by the owners of these structures.
   (d) Individual owners of structures within state responsibility
areas receive a disproportionately larger benefit from fire
prevention activities than that realized by the state's citizens
generally.
   (e) It is the intent of the Legislature that the economic burden
of fire prevention activities that are associated with structures in
state responsibility areas shall be equitably distributed among the
citizens of the state who generally benefit from those activities and
those owners of structures in the state responsibility areas who
receive a specific benefit other than that general benefit.
   (f) It is necessary to impose a fire prevention fee to pay for
fire prevention activities in the state responsibility areas that
specifically benefit owners of structures in the state responsibility
areas.