BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
SB 735 (Wolk) - Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Reform Act of 2009:
multispecies conservation plans.
Amended: April 24, 2013 Policy Vote: NR&W 7-2
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: May 23, 2013 Consultant: Marie Liu
SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
Bill Summary: SB 735 would require the Delta Stewardship Council
(council), the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW), and
specified local governments to enter into a written agreement by
January 1, 2015 on how to ensure that current and future
multispecies conservation plans and the Delta Plan are
consistent with each other.
Fiscal Impact:
One-time costs of $50,000 to $70,000 from the General Fund
for additional workload for the council.
One-time costs of $50,000 to $70,000 from the Fish and Game
Preservation Fund (special fund) for additional workload for
DFW.
Background: The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Reform Act of 2009
(act) established council and required the council to develop
and adopt a Delta Plan to achieve the co-equal goals of
providing a more reliable water supply for California and
protecting, restoring, and enhancing the Delta ecosystem. The
Delta Plan is scheduled to be adopted in May 2013. The act
requires all plans, programs, or projects that have the
potential to have greater impacts in the Delta to be consistent
with the Delta Plan.
Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs) and Natural Community
Conservation Plans (NCCPs) are landscape level multi-species
plans that are authorized and permitted pursuant to the federal
Endangered Species Act, the California Endangered Species Act,
and the state Natural Community Conservation Planning Act. NCCPs
and HCPs take a broad-based ecosystem approach to planning for
the protection and perpetuation of biological diversity while
allowing for the incidental take of endangered species in the
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course of otherwise legal activities, such as land development
projects.
Proposed Law: This bill would require the council, DFW, Contra
Costa County, Sacramento County, Solano County, the Yolo County
Habitat/Natural Community Conservation Plan Joint Powers Agency,
and the San Joaquin Council of Governments to enter into a
written agreement by January 1, 2015 that would describe how the
parties would ensure that adopted and future multispecies
conservation plans are consistent with the Delta Plan and vice
versa. The council would be required to invite and encourage
participation from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
Staff Comments: While the council and DFW would likely have to
resolve the consistency issues with current and future NCCPs and
HCPs in order for the Delta Plan to be effective, this bill
would make an explicit requirement for this work. By requiring
an written agreement to be entered into by January 1, 2015, this
bill also likely expedites these discussions. The council
estimates that this bill's requirements would result in an
500-700 hours of staff time at a cost of $50,000 to $70,000.
Staff estimates a similar workload demand on DFW.
As this bill requires actions by local governments, the costs to
local governments to comply with the mandates under this bill
may be reimbursable upon a determination by the Commission on
State Mandates. If the five local governments in this bill have
similar costs as the state agencies, this bill could result
$250,000 in reimbursements.
Staff notes that the Delta Plan and affected existing NCCPs and
HCPs may need to be modified as a result of the agreement
reached, thus causing additional costs to the agencies. Arguably
these revision costs would need to be done regardless of the
outcome of this bill in order to achieve the co-equal goals.
This bill also does not pose any specific requirements or
deadlines for such revisions and so plan revision costs are not
attributable to this bill.
Proposed Author Amendments: Eliminate the requirement for local
agencies to enter into the formal agreements.
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