BILL NUMBER: AB 718	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 21, 2015
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MARCH 26, 2015

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Chu

                        FEBRUARY 25, 2015

   An act to add  Sections 22506.5 and 22651.06 to the
Vehicle Code, relating to vehicles.   Section 50034 to
the Government Code, relating to local government. 


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 718, as amended, Chu.  Vehicles: parking citations and
impoundment.  Local government: powers.  
   Existing law authorizes the legislative body of a city or county
to pass ordinances not in conflict with state or federal law and the
state or federal constitution.  
   This bill would prohibit the legislative body of a city, county,
or city and county from prohibiting, or otherwise subjecting to civil
or criminal penalties, the act of sleeping or resting in a lawfully
parked motor vehicle.  
   Existing law regulates the stopping, parking, or leaving of
vehicles on highways and off-street parking facilities, and also
authorizes local authorities, by ordinance or resolution, to regulate
the parking of vehicles on highways, if the ordinance or resolution
is first approved by the Department of Transportation. Existing law
further authorizes the impoundment of a vehicle that is parked where
local authorities, by resolution or ordinance, have prohibited
parking, or when the vehicle has been issued 5 or more notices of
parking violations to which the owner or person in control of the
vehicle has not responded within 21 calendar days, as specified.
 
   This bill would prohibit a peace officer or an employee of a city
or county from issuing a parking citation to the owner or person in
control of a vehicle, or from impounding a vehicle, on the basis that
the owner or other person is sleeping in the vehicle, if the vehicle
is otherwise lawfully parked. 
   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 50034 is added to the 
 Government Code   , to read:  
   50034.  The legislative body of a city, county, or city and county
shall not prohibit, or otherwise subject to civil or criminal
penalties, the act of sleeping or resting in a lawfully parked motor
vehicle.  
  SECTION 1.    Section 22506.5 is added to the
Vehicle Code, to read:
   22506.5.  A peace officer, or a regularly employed and salaried
employee of a city or county who is engaged in directing traffic or
enforcing parking laws, shall not issue a parking citation to the
owner or person in control of a vehicle for sleeping in the vehicle,
if the vehicle is otherwise lawfully parked.  
  SEC. 2.    Section 22651.06 is added to the
Vehicle Code, to read:
   22651.06.  A peace officer, or a regularly employed and salaried
employee of a city or county who is engaged in directing traffic or
enforcing parking laws, shall not remove and impound a vehicle on the
basis that the owner or person in control of the vehicle is sleeping
in the vehicle, if the vehicle is otherwise lawfully parked.