BILL NUMBER: AB 1164 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 22, 2015
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 21, 2015
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 26, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Gatto
( Principal coauthor: Assembly Member
Gonzalez )
FEBRUARY 27, 2015
An act to add Section 14526.7 53087.7
to the Government Code, relating to highways.
water conservation, making an appropriation therefor,
and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1164, as amended, Gatto. State highways: evaluation
and rating. Water conservation: drought tolerant
landscaping.
Existing law generally authorizes every city and county, including
a charter city, in this state to make and enforce within its limits
all local, police, sanitary, and other ordinances and regulations
that are not in conflict with general laws.
This bill would prohibit a city, including a charter city, county,
and city and county, from enacting or enforcing any ordinance or
regulation that prohibits the installation of synthetic grass or
artificial turf on residential property. The bill would additionally
state that this is an issue of statewide concern.
The bill would continuously appropriate $300,000,000 from the
General Fund to the State Water Resources Control Board in equal
amounts of $100,000,000 for each of the 2015-16, 2016-17, and 2017-18
fiscal years, to provide matching funds to specified local agencies
to provide incentives to residents to replace water inefficient
landscaping with drought tolerant landscaping.
The bill would state the intent of the Legislature to streamline
the installation of infrastructure that collects graywater for the
purposes of recycling water to be used for nonpotable uses.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute.
Existing law gives the Department of Transportation full
possession and control of the state highways. Existing law requires
the department to prepare a state highway operation and protection
program for the expenditure of transportation funds for major capital
improvements that are necessary to preserve and protect the state
highway system.
This bill would require the department, in consultation with
specified entities, to conduct an annual evaluation and rating of the
overall quality of the state highway system and the resources needed
to provide a system in good repair, and would require a report to
specified committees of the Legislature in that regard annually until
2020. The bill would also require the department to post the report
on its Internet Web site.
Vote: majority 2/3 . Appropriation:
no yes . Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature hereby finds and
declares:
(a) With the lowest snowpack ever recorded, California finds
itself in 2015 in the fourth year of a historic, prolonged, and
potentially devastating drought.
(b) Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. issued an Executive order on
April 1, 2015, which, for the first time in California history,
directs the State Water Resources Control Board to implement
mandatory water reductions across the state to reduce water usage by
25 percent.
(c) One component of the Governor's Executive order compels the
replacement of 50 million square feet of lawns throughout the state
with drought tolerant landscaping.
(d) Among a wide variety of drought tolerant landscaping are a
variety of native plants and landscaping alternatives, including the
installation of synthetic grass or artificial turf.
(e) According to the Department of Water Resources, landscape
irrigation represents 43 percent of urban water use. The installation
of synthetic grass or artificial turf, in lieu of conventional lawns
and landscapes, can directly reduce outdoor water use to help meet
the Governor's mandated 25-percent statewide water use reduction.
(f) The vast majority of Californians may today elect to install
synthetic grass or artificial turf in their single-family residential
landscapes.
SEC. 2. It is the intent of the Legislature to
streamline the installation of infrastructure that collects graywater
for the purposes of recycling water to be used for nonpotable uses.
SEC. 3. Section 53087.7 is added to the
Government Code , to read:
53087.7. A city, including a charter city, county, or city and
county, shall not enact any ordinance or regulation, or enforce any
existing ordinance or regulation, that prohibits the installation of
synthetic grass or artificial turf on residential property.
SEC. 4. The Legislature finds and declares the
prolonged drought, along with climate change, requires the state to
address water conservation goals that will have long-term impacts in
this state. The Legislature further finds and declares that drought
tolerant landscaping, including the installation of synthetic grass
or artificial turf, is a viable landscaping alternative that will
further the goal of addressing long-term water conservation.
Therefore, allowing property owners in this state to install
synthetic grass or artificial turf on their residential properties is
a matter of statewide concern, not a municipal affair as that term
is used in Section 5 of Article XI of the California Constitution.
SEC. 5. Notwithstanding Section 13340 of the
Government Code, the sum of three hundred million dollars
($300,000,000) is hereby continuously appropriated from the General
Fund to the State Water Resources Control Board to be expended in
equal shares of one hundred million dollars ($100,000,000) for each
of the 2015-16, 2016-17, and 2017-18 fiscal years to provide matching
funds to any city, county, city and county, public water agency, or
private water agency to provide incentives to residents to replace
water inefficient landscaping with drought tolerant landscaping.
SEC. 6. This act is an urgency statute necessary
for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety
within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go
into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to address the historic, prolonged, and potentially
devastating drought, it is necessary that residents of this state be
able to replace water inefficient landscaping with drought tolerant
landscaping as quickly as possible; therefore, it is necessary that
this act take effect immediately.
SECTION 1. Section 14526.7 is added to the
Government Code, to read:
14526.7. (a) The department shall conduct an annual evaluation
and rating of the overall quality of the state highway system and the
resources needed to provide a system in good repair. The evaluation
shall demonstrate how resource, staffing, and programming decisions
impact the overall condition of the state highway system. The
evaluation shall address the number of distressed lane miles, bridge
conditions, and life cycle costs. The evaluation shall also include,
but not be limited to, all of the following:
(1) The rating of the state's urban interstate lane miles,
measured according to the International Roughness Index, and the
schedule and resources needed to bring at least 90 percent of the
lane miles rated less than 170 (the federal rating of poor condition)
into good condition.
(2) The rating of the state's rural interstate lane miles,
measured according to the International Roughness Index, and the
schedule and resources needed to bring at least 95 percent of the
lane miles rated less than 170 (the federal rating of poor condition)
into good condition.
(3) The percentage of lane miles on the state freeways and
highways that are distressed lane miles and the schedule and
resources needed to bring the percentage of distressed lane miles to
5 percent or less.
(4) The schedule and resources needed to bring the pavement level
of service to the well-maintained pavement level for 95 percent or
more of the lane miles on the state freeways and highways.
(5) The percentage of the state's bridges that achieve a bridge
health index (BHI) rating of at least 94, the percentage of bridges
with a BHI rating of 80 or lower, and the schedule and resources
needed to perform bridge maintenance and capital repairs to ensure
that all of the state's bridges achieve a BHI rating of at least 94.
(6) The number of the state's bridges that are structurally
deficient or functionally obsolete under federal standards and the
schedule and resources needed to ensure that no more than 10 percent
of the state's bridges are structurally deficient or functionally
obsolete.
(b) In conducting the evaluation specified in subdivision (a), the
department shall consult with the following:
(1) The commission.
(2) Regional transportation agencies.
(3) County transportation agencies.
(c) The department shall provide the evaluation and rating
specified in subdivision (a) in an annual report, on or before March
31, to the Assembly Committee on Transportation and the Senate
Committee on Transportation and Housing. The report shall also be
posted on the department's Internet Web site.
(d) The requirement for submitting a report imposed under
subdivision (c) is inoperative after March 31, 2020, pursuant to
Section 10231.5.