BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 758
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Date of Hearing: August 14, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT
K.H. "Katcho" Achadjian, Chair
SB 758 (Block) - As Amended: August 5, 2013
SENATE VOTE : 38-0
SUBJECT : General plans: City of Coronado.
SUMMARY : Extends the amount of time allowed under current law
for the City of Coronado to amend specified land use plans after
an amendment to the airport land use compatibility plan that
applies to the City. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires the general plan, and any applicable specific plan,
for the City of Coronado to be amended, as necessary, within
540 days of any amendment to the airport land use
compatibility plan (ALUCP) if the amendment is made prior to
January 1, 2017.
2)Provides that the provisions of this bill remain in effect
only until January 1, 2019, or 540 days after an amendment to
the ALUCP, whichever is earlier, and as of that date is
repealed.
3)Finds and declares that a special law is necessary because of
the unique island location of the City of Coronado and its
proximity to large military installations, and because the
complexities of amending a general plan and a local coastal
plan for the City of Coronado will take significantly longer
than six months.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires cities to adopt a general plan for the physical
development of their jurisdiction and related areas, which
must contain at least seven elements: land use, circulation,
conservation, open-space, housing, noise, and safety. State
law also requires general plans to address other subjects
depending on the community's location, like coastal resources,
seismic hazards, or floodplains (specific plans).
2)Requires city zoning ordinances to be consistent with a city's
general plan and any applicable specific plan.
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3)Requires each Airport Land Use Commission (ALUC) to formulate
an ALUCP that will provide for the orderly growth of each
public airport and the area surrounding the airport within the
jurisdiction of the ALUC, and will safeguard the general
welfare of the inhabitants within the vicinity of the airport
and the public in general.
4)Requires the ALUC's ALUCP to include and be based on a
long-range master plan or an airport layout plan, as
determined by the Division of Aeronautics of the Department of
Transportation, that reflects the anticipated growth of the
airport during at least the next 20 years.
5)Allows an ALUC, in formulating an ALUCP, to develop height
restrictions on buildings, specify use of land, and determine
building standards, including soundproofing adjacent to
airports, within the airport influence area. Requires the
ALUCP to be reviewed as often as necessary in order to
accomplish its purposes, but prohibits it from being amended
more than once in any calendar year.
6)Requires the ALUC to include, within its ALUCP, the area
within the jurisdiction of the ALUC surrounding any military
airport for all of the purposes specified above. Requires the
ALUCP to be consistent with the safety and noise standards in
the Air Installation Compatibility Use Zone (AICUZ) prepared
for that military airport.
7)Requires a local jurisdiction's general plan, and any
applicable specific plan, to be consistent with the ALUCP
prepared for that jurisdiction, and to be amended, as
necessary, within 180 days of any amendment to the ALUCP.
8)Requires cities to submit their general plans or specific
plans, or amendments to these plans, to the ALUC, which must
determine whether the city's plans are consistent with the
ALUCP. If the city's plans are inconsistent with the ALUCP,
the city may propose to overrule the ALUC after a public
hearing by a two-thirds vote of its governing body if it makes
certain findings, as specified.
9)Requires a city's zoning to be consistent with any applicable
ALUCP, and provides for a similar process of ALUC review and
ALUCP overruling as described in 8), above.
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FISCAL EFFECT : This bill is keyed fiscal.
COMMENTS :
1)This bill lengthens the time frame within which the City of
Coronado must update its general plan and specific plans to
conform to the ALUCP prepared for the City's jurisdiction.
The bill allows the City 540 days (18 months) to complete its
land use plan updates, which is a three-fold increase over the
current law requirement to complete updates within 180 days
(six months). This bill is sponsored by the City of Coronado.
2)According to the author's office, "Coronado is seeking the
change in state law so they have the time needed to grapple
with significant changes to the community's various planning
documents as a result of the Navy's North Island Naval Air
Base's military's AICUZ plan. In 2002, State Legislation was
approved that significantly altered how local airport planning
entities treat military airbases and their associated planning
documents. This change in law essentially allowed the
military's plan, the AICUZ, to set the baseline that the local
airport plan (ALUCP) uses to determine compatible land uses.
The change in state law removed the flexibility afforded to
the local planning agencies to deal with unique circumstances
such as having extensive pre-existing residences, commercial
district and hotels within the clear zone and accident
potential zone.
"In the case of Coronado, the recently released AICUZ will
require significant changes to the city's general plan and
associated planning documents since Coronado must comply with
the Navy's AICUZ plan. The City of Coronado does not believe
that the airport land-use process will be able to address
Coronado's concerns adequately given the time limitations in
State law. This bill would extend that time period from 180
days to 540 days to give the City the time it needs to
reconcile their own planning documents to those dictated in
the military's AICUZ document."
3)An ALUCP is a plan, usually adopted by a county ALUC or other
entity established to accomplish land use compatibility
planning, that sets forth policies for promoting compatibility
between airports and the land uses that surround them. An
ALUCP must be consistent with the safety and noise standards
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in the AICUZ study prepared for a military airport within the
jurisdiction of the ALUC. The San Diego County Regional
Airport Authority (Authority) is the ALUC for San Diego County
and, as such, prepares the ALUCP for its jurisdiction, which
includes the City of Coronado.
4)The AICUZ program is a planning program that was developed by
the United States (U.S.) Department of Defense (Department) in
response to incompatible urban development and land use
conflicts around military airfields. The AICUZ program has
two objectives: to assist local, regional, state, and federal
officials in protecting the public health, safety, and welfare
by promoting compatible development within the AICUZ area of
influence; and, to protect operational capabilities from the
effects of land uses that are incompatible with aircraft
operations. While prepared by or for a military installation,
the primary users of an AICUZ study are the local communities
surrounding the installation or an offsite location.
An AICUZ study contains an analysis of accident potential and
noise produced by military operations. The study also
identifies areas of current and future encroachment based on
local land use plans, and provides local communities with
compatible land use recommendations for consideration in
developing their comprehensive plans and zoning ordinances.
Current law, pursuant to SB 1468 (Knight), Chapter 971,
Statutes of 2002, requires the ALUCP to be consistent with the
safety and noise standards in the AICUZ, and requires city and
county general and specific plans to be consistent with the
ALUCP and to be amended within 180 days of any amendment to
the ALUCP.
5)Current law requires cities to submit proposed amendments to
their general plans or specific plans, and proposed zoning
ordinances or building regulations within the ALUC's
jurisdiction, to the ALUC, which must determine whether the
city's proposals are consistent with the ALUCP. If the city's
plans are inconsistent with the ALUCP, the city may propose to
overrule the ALUC after a public hearing by a two-thirds vote
of its governing body if the city makes specific findings that
the proposed action is consistent with statutes governing
ALUCs.
6)In early 2012, the Department released an AICUZ update for
Naval Air Station North Island (NASNI) and Naval Outlying
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Landing Field Imperial Beach (NOLFIB) Airport, which are part
of Naval Base Coronado. The last AICUZ for these airfields
was approved by the Navy in January 1984. At that time, the
AICUZ was advisory and the City treated it as such. This is
the first time that the safety and noise standards in the
AICUZ must be incorporated into the ALUCP and, by extension,
into the City of Coronado's general and specific plans. The
Authority anticipates beginning technical work on its ALUCP
for NASNI in January of 2015, projecting adoption of the ALUCP
in January of 2017. The City would have to wait until the
Authority completes its ALUCP before updating its general and
specific plans.
The new AICUZ is substantially different than the AICUZ issued
nearly 30 years ago, and includes a number of areas in
accident-potential zones and noise-impact zones that were not
identified as such in the 1984 AICUZ. According to the City
of Coronado, approximately 374 single-family dwellings, 40
multi-family units, four commercial structures, and 14 hotel
structures (including the National Historic Landmark Hotel del
Coronado) are in the Accident Potential Zone (APZ) 1 that were
not in the APZ 1 in the 1984 AICUZ. The City states, "The
inclusion of these existing residences, commercial structures
and hotels was not due to new development but due to changed
operations at NASNI. The Navy's AICUZ indicates all
single-family residential, multiple family residential and
hotel uses should be prohibited in the Clear and APZ 1 zones."
Complicating matters in the case of Coronado are the facts
that the city pre-dates the military installation and, as an
island location, Coronado cannot expand beyond its existing
boundaries. According to the City, "Coronado's existing
residential and commercial land uses and zoning have
essentially remained unchanged over many decades while
adjacent naval base uses and impacts have increased?The
mandatory application of the AICUZ on zoning and land use
regulations in Coronado will impose significant residential
and commercial development restrictions inconsistent with the
City's existing land uses, General Plan and zoning regulation.
"Attempting to make significant changes to the City's general
plan, along with the City's local coastal plan will take
longer than 6 months (existing law). The CalTrans Airport
Handbook which provides guidance to airport land use
commissions on how to develop ALUCPs states that complying
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with the 180 days limit currently in statute is problematic,
especially if the ALUCP requires extensive changes (and
Coronado's ALUCP likely will require extensive changes given
the large portion of the city covered by the AICUZ)."
7)AB 662 (Hueso, 2012) would have required the AICUZ of a
military airport within the jurisdiction of an ALUC to provide
for reasonable public comment and participation and specified
environmental review, and would have deemed an AICUZ
inapplicable if these conditions are not met. AB 662 died on
the Assembly Floor.
SB 1468 (Knight), Chapter 971, Statutes of 2002, requires the
provisions of an AICUZ to become mandatory when incorporated
into an ALUCP. Prior to SB 1468, the inclusion of the AICUZ
in an ALUCP was voluntary.
8)Support arguments : Supporters note that the specific
circumstances and challenges surrounding the City of Coronado
justify an extended time frame for the City to update its land
use documents to reflect changes in the AICUZ for NASNI.
Opposition arguments : Opponents could raise concerns that,
although this bill gives affected parties additional time to
comply with current law, the underlying requirements that the
ALUCP be consistent with the safety and noise standards in the
AICUZ, and that the general and specific plans be consistent
with the ALUCP, could yet prove to be problematic.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
City of Coronado [SPONSOR]
City of Imperial Beach
Opposition
None on file
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Analysis Prepared by : Angela Mapp / L. GOV. / (916) 319-3958