BILL NUMBER: AB 1922 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 20, 2014
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Gomez
FEBRUARY 19, 2014
An act relating to hazardous materials to
amend Section 815.3 of the Civil Code, to amend Section 65560 of the
Government Code, and to add Chapter 10.5 (commencing with Section
5845) to Division 5 of the Public Resources Code, relating to
open-space lands .
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1922, as amended, Gomez. Hazardous materials: Los
Angeles River: revitalization. Greenway Development
and Sustainment Act.
Existing law establishes various plans and programs intended to
preserve, protect, and rehabilitate lands adjacent to rivers in the
state.
This bill would enact the Greenway Development and Sustainment
Act, which is intended to promote the development of greenways along
rivers in the state, including the development of a greenway along
the Los Angeles River. The bill would define the term "greenway" for
purposes of the bill, and would authorize a city, county, city and
county, or other local government entity to designate lands along a
river in its jurisdiction, upon approval of its legislative body by
ordinance or resolution, or by incorporating such a designation into
an adopted general plan element or adopted river master plan, and to
apply for public or private funding available for the development of
a greenway in its jurisdiction, to be used in a manner consistent
with applicable state laws.
Existing law authorizes certain entities and organizations to
acquire and hold conservation easements, including tax exempt
nonprofit organizations qualified to do business in this state that
has as its primary purpose the preservation, protection, or
enhancement of land in its natural, scenic, historical, agricultural,
forested, open-space or use.
This bill would also authorize such a tax exempt nonprofit
organization to acquire and hold a conservation easement if the
organization has as its primary purpose the development of a
greenway.
Existing law authorizes a local agency, pursuant to specified
procedures, to take any action that the local agency determines is
necessary, consistent with other state and federal laws, to
investigate and clean up a release of hazardous materials in a
blighted area within the boundaries of the local agency.
This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact
legislation that would encourage the clean up of the Los Angeles
River for purposes of redevelopment, restoration, and revitalization.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no
yes . State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. (a) The Legislature hereby finds and
declares all of the following:
(1) Open-space land is necessary not only for the maintenance of
the economy of the state, but for, among other purposes, the
enjoyment of scenic beauty, recreation, and the use and preservation
of natural resources. Moreover, the growing population of the state
makes it important that existing open-space resources be preserved
and well maintained, and that access to those resources be ensured
for the health benefits and well-being of the state's population. The
preservation of open-space land is especially critical in urban
areas where the amount of usable open-space land is limited.
(2) Open-space land provides relief from the effects of urban
congestion and opportunities for relaxation, exercise, community
interaction, and the observation and appreciation of wildlife, which
helps to combat both physical and psychological stress. Trees located
on open-space land also provide shade and help reduce ambient
temperatures and restore oxygen to the atmosphere.
(3) Greenways are public infrastructure located along natural
landscape features such as urban watercourses, which, because of
their linear structure, help to physically and psychologically
connect various neighborhoods with one another while providing a
means of habitat connectivity.
(4) Greenways can directly improve the quality of life in
communities by providing important recreational, open-space land,
wildlife, flood management, water quality, air quality,
transportation, emergency response, and urban waterfront
revitalization benefits to those communities.
(5) Greenways can foster livable communities by utilizing public
lands for multiple, complementary purposes, such as placemaking,
connecting diverse communities, reducing dependence on automobiles,
expanding nonmotorized transportation networks with safer routes to
jobs, homes, and schools, encouraging more transit-oriented
development, and facilitating healthier behaviors by providing
opportunities for exercise and the maintenance of a healthy, active
lifestyle.
(6) Greenways can be complemented and enhanced by installing
public amenities and public-serving retail and services that provide
additional access to historically underserved urban communities.
Greenways also attract residents and visitors, and increase public
safety by fostering improved civic vigilance. Other public-private
partnerships in greenways in cities throughout the world have
demonstrated the effectiveness and benefits of sustainable and
successful public-private partnerships.
(7) Greenways encourage healthier residential communities by
facilitating development that allows people to live closer to job
centers and use public transportation alternatives.
(8) Greenways reduce the amount of parking necessary for small
businesses because of reduced automobile traffic, encourage the
development of affordable housing in urban areas, and promote walking
and cycling and increased community interaction.
(9) Greenways encourage economic investment and community
revitalization by connecting people in new ways.
(b) The Legislature finds and declares the following with regard
to the development of a greenway along the Los Angeles River:
(1) The Los Angeles River is a site that is particularly suited
for the development of a greenway. A Los Angeles River greenway that
focuses on public-private partnerships aimed at establishing a
continuous pedestrian bikeway along the Los Angeles River and its key
tributaries would foster job creation, economic development, and
community revitalization.
(2) A Los Angeles River greenway that establishes a continuous
pedestrian bikeway along the Los Angeles River and its key
tributaries would encourage community revitalization by investing in
an efficient cycling and walking recreational transit route following
the 51-mile Los Angeles River corridor. The greenway would also
connect existing communities along the Los Angeles River to a network
of parks and multiuse public trails.
(3) A Los Angeles River greenway would build upon a long history
of support for a multiuse greenway network along the most significant
river in the nation's second largest city. Since the 1980s,
residents of the Los Angeles area have been advocating for the
development of a trail network along the Los Angeles River. The
County of Los Angeles' Los Angeles River Master Plan in 1996, the
City of Los Angeles' Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan in
2007, the City of Los Angeles Bicycle Plan in 2010, the County of Los
Angeles Bicycle Plan in 2012, and President Obama's prioritization
of the Los Angeles River trail system in the President's America's
Great Outdoors Initiative in 2012 all promote the development of a
river trail system along the Los Angeles River.
(4) A Los Angeles River greenway would build upon a long history
of investment by the state in the development of parks and trails
along the Los Angeles River, including Rio de Los Angeles State Park
and Los Angeles State Historic Park. Moreover, a Los Angeles River
greenway would complement the work of key state entities, including
the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and various other state rivers
and mountains conservancies.
(5) Because of its ability to leverage private investments to
match commitments of public funds, the development of a Los Angeles
River greenway by the City of Los Angeles would allow the state to
concentrate and streamline investments it has already made in
communities adjacent to the Los Angeles River, and would provide a
funding model for types of investments funding greenways that may be
replicated in other priority urban waterways in the future.
(6) Because a greenway is a transportation corridor that promotes
sustainability, it is eligible for alternative fuels funding,
transportation funding, and other nontraditional river funding.
(7) Given the current fiscal constraints facing public agencies,
it is time for the state to acknowledge and take advantage of the
ability of private sector investments to sustain public
infrastructure at all levels. Efforts to promote investment in the
Los Angeles River trail system should be encouraged to prevent
partial, disjointed, and inefficient development of the trail system.
(8) A Los Angeles River greenway would provide a social and
natural resource amenity that would be complete and accessible to the
public in the next seven years, and would be a resource that could
be utilized and enjoyed by children in the Los Angeles area during
their childhood years.
(9) A Los Angeles River greenway would improve the conditions of
daily life in Los Angeles' urban communities and would increase the
value of the state's investments while providing critically needed,
tangible urban waterway revitalization in the Los Angeles area.
(10) A greenway should be established in the area encompassing the
Los Angeles River from its headwaters in the Community of Canoga
Park to a point of discharge into the Pacific Ocean at San Pedro Bay
in the City of Long Beach, with a width of one-quarter to one mile on
both banks and at least one mile upstream along both banks of its
tributaries, as feasible. Within the City of Los Angeles, the
greenway could be coterminous with the area included in the Los
Angeles River Improvement Overlay district.
(11) The County of Los Angeles' Los Angeles River Master Plan and
the City of Los Angeles' Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan
call for the development of a greenway along the Los Angeles River.
(c) It is therefore the intent of the Legislature in enacting
Chapter 10.5 (commencing with Section 5845) of Division 5 of the
Public Resources Code to promote the development of greenways along
rivers in the state through public and private partnership, including
the development of a greenway along the Los Angeles River.
SEC. 2. Section 815.3 of the Civil Code
is amended to read:
815.3. Only the following entities or organizations may acquire
and hold conservation easements:
(a) A tax-exempt nonprofit organization qualified under Section
501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and qualified to do business
in this state which that has as its
primary purpose the preservation, protection, or enhancement of land
in its natural, scenic, historical, agricultural, forested,
or open-space condition or use , or the
development of a greenway, as defined in Section 5846 of the Public
Resources Code .
(b) The state or any city, county, city and county, district, or
other state or local governmental entity, if otherwise authorized to
acquire and hold title to real property and if the conservation
easement is voluntarily conveyed. No local governmental entity may
condition the issuance of an entitlement for use on the applicant's
granting of a conservation easement pursuant to this chapter.
(c) A federally recognized California Native American tribe or a
nonfederally recognized California Native American tribe that is on
the contact list maintained by the Native American Heritage
Commission to protect a California Native American prehistoric,
archaeological, cultural, spiritual, or ceremonial place, if the
conservation easement is voluntarily conveyed.
SEC. 3. Section 65560 of the Government
Code is amended to read:
65560. (a) "Local open-space plan" is the open-space element of a
county or city general plan adopted by the board or council, either
as the local open-space plan or as the interim local open-space plan
adopted pursuant to Section 65563.
(b) "Open-space land" is any parcel or area of land or water that
is essentially unimproved and devoted to an open-space use as defined
in this section, and that is designated on a local, regional or
state open-space plan as any of the following:
(1) Open space for the preservation of natural resources
including, but not limited to, areas required for the preservation of
plant and animal life, including habitat for fish and wildlife
species; areas required for ecologic and other scientific study
purposes; rivers, streams, bays and estuaries; and coastal beaches,
lakeshores, banks of rivers and streams, greenways, and
watershed lands.
(2) Open space used for the managed production of resources,
including but not limited to, forest lands, rangeland, agricultural
lands and areas of economic importance for the production of food or
fiber; areas required for recharge of groundwater basins; bays,
estuaries, marshes, rivers and streams which are important for the
management of commercial fisheries; and areas containing major
mineral deposits, including those in short supply.
(3) Open space for outdoor recreation, including but not limited
to, areas of outstanding scenic, historic and cultural value; areas
particularly suited for park and recreation purposes, including
access to lakeshores, beaches, and rivers and streams; and areas
which that serve as links between major
recreation and open-space reservations, including utility easements,
banks of rivers and streams, trails, greenways, and
scenic highway corridors.
(4) Open space for public health and safety, including, but not
limited to, areas which that require
special management or regulation because of hazardous or special
conditions such as earthquake fault zones, unstable soil areas, flood
plains, watersheds, areas presenting high fire risks, areas required
for the protection of water quality and water reservoirs ,
and areas required for the protection and enhancement of air
quality.
(5) Open space in support of the mission of military installations
that comprises areas adjacent to military installations, military
training routes, and underlying restricted airspace that can provide
additional buffer zones to military activities and complement the
resource values of the military lands.
(6) Open space for the protection of places, features, and objects
described in Sections 5097.9 and 5097.993 of the Public Resources
Code.
SEC. 4. Chapter 10.5 (commencing with Section
5845) is added to Division 5 of the Public Resources Code
, to read:
CHAPTER 10.5. GREENWAY DEVELOPMENT AND SUSTAINMENT ACT
5845. This chapter shall be known, and may be cited, as the
Greenway Development and Sustainment Act.
5846. For purposes of this chapter, "greenway" means a pedestrian
and bicycle, nonmotorized vehicle transportation, and recreational
travel corridor that meets the following requirements:
(a) Is separated and protected from shared roadways, parallels an
urban waterway, and incorporates both ease of access to adjacent
communities and an array of amenities and services for the users of
the corridor and nearby communities.
(b) Is publicly accessible and located on a combination of public
and private lands, if public access to those lands is provided by
lands owned in fee simple, leases, or easements.
(c) Reflects design standards with appropriate widths, clearances,
setbacks from obstructions, and centerlines protecting directional
travel, where appropriate.
(d) Incorporates appropriate landscaping, lighting, public
amenities, and art.
5847. (a) A city, county, city and county, or other local
government entity may designate lands along a river in its
jurisdiction as a greenway, upon approval of its legislative body by
ordinance or resolution, or by incorporating such a designation into
an adopted general plan element or an adopted river master plan.
(b) A city, county, city and county, or other local government
entity may adopt ordinances or resolutions that regulate public
health and safety or traffic within a designated greenway in its
jurisdiction.
5848. A city, county, city and county, or other local government
entity may apply for public or private funding available for the
development of a greenway in its jurisdiction, and any funds secured
for that purpose shall be used in a manner consistent with applicable
state laws. Funding that may be secured for the purposes of this
chapter is not limited to parkway, riverway, or other water-related
funds. A city, county, or city and county may also seek
transportation, alternative fuel, greenhouse gas reduction, or other
land use funds for the purposes of this chapter.
5849. A city, county, city and county, or other local government
entity that obtains federal lands access program funding under
Section 204(a)(1) of Title 23 of the United States Code shall be
given priority with regard to the provision of state funding for
greenway development under this chapter.
SECTION 1. It is the intent of the Legislature
to enact legislation that would encourage the clean up of the Los
Angeles River for purposes of redevelopment, restoration, and
revitalization.