BILL NUMBER: AB 2428 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 31, 2016
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 7, 2016
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 18, 2016
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Ting
FEBRUARY 19, 2016
An act to amend Section 104.16 of the Streets and Highways Code,
relating to state highways.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2428, as amended, Ting. State highways: property leases.
Existing law provides that the Department of Transportation has
full possession and control of the state highway system, including
associated property. Existing law authorizes the department to lease
certain property, including the area above or below a state highway,
and certain property held for future highway purposes, to public
agencies under specified terms and conditions, including specific
provisions governing leases of airspace and other property in the
City and County of San Francisco for purposes of an emergency shelter
or feeding program, at a lease cost of $1 per month and payment of
an administrative fee not to exceed $500 per year.
This bill would revise the provisions governing leases of
department property in the City and County of San Francisco to also
authorize leases of property for park, recreational, or open-space
purposes, subject to certain additional terms and
conditions, including conditions. These park,
recreational, and open-space leases would be subject to a
requirement for the department to lease property located within a
priority development area, as defined, to the city and county
on a right of first refusal basis and
and, for up to 10 parcels, at a specified below market
value lease amount, and a requirement for the lessee to be
responsible for all associated nonhighway maintenance costs. The bill
would provide for the lease to authorize the lessee to subsidize its
maintenance costs through a limited revenue generation model, with
any revenues generated above the maintenance costs to be shared with
the state, as specified.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) Chapter 728 of the Statutes of 2008 (SB 375) supports the
goals of the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32)
by requiring each of the state's 18 metropolitan areas to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks. SB 375 calls on
each metropolitan area to develop a sustainable communities strategy
(SCS) to accommodate future population growth and reduce greenhouse
gas emissions.
(b) One of the major components of SB 375 is to coordinate the
regional housing needs allocation process with the regional
transportation process while maintaining local authority over land
use decisions. Thus, local officials are key decisionmakers in how
the provisions of SB 375 are ultimately implemented.
(c) The nine-county Bay Area metropolitan area SCS, Plan Bay Area,
was adopted in 2013 through a cooperative effort of the Metropolitan
Transportation Commission (MTC) and the Association of Bay Area
Governments (ABAG). The Bay Area is expected to grow by 2,000,000
people over the next 25 years.
(d) Plan Bay Area provides a strategy for meeting 80 percent of
the region's future housing needs in priority development areas
(PDAs). These are neighborhoods within walking distance of frequent
transit service, offering a wide variety of housing options, and
featuring amenities such as grocery stores, community centers, open
space, and restaurants.
(e) There is a direct relationship between development planning
for population growth in PDAs and the provision of open space and
other amenities in these areas that will be required to support
projected growth. San Francisco, like most cities, aims to provide
adequate quality open space for the broader public health and quality
of life of its citizens and workforce. As new development occurs, it
serves additional residents and employees, who, in turn, require
new, or expanded and enhanced, open space.
(f) A 2014 San Francisco Citywide Nexus Analysis documents this
direct relationship between projected population growth and the cost
of new open-space infrastructure to support growth. Providing
recreation and open space, such as baseball diamonds, soccer fields,
parks, playgrounds, tennis courts, flower gardens, community gardens,
and greenways, is a capital intensive undertaking, especially in San
Francisco where land availability is low and land prices are high.
(g) To meet the goals of SB 375, more of the future development is
planned to be walkable and bikeable and close to public transit,
jobs, schools, shopping, parks, recreation, and other amenities. Many
of San Francisco's PDAs are located in areas of San Francisco that
both lack open space and are home to most of the city's freeways.
There are many parcels and right-of-ways beneath and adjacent to
these freeways and within PDAs that could be used for open-space
purposes, yet currently the cost of leasing those lands from the
Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is prohibitively high.
(h) Thus, one strategy for supporting statewide SB 375 goals is to
decrease the cost of providing additional open space by decreasing
the cost of land. An innovative intergovernmental partnership would
engage Caltrans in low-cost leases with San Francisco for areas under
the freeways that overlap with PDAs and San Francisco would, in
turn, take on the cost of building and maintaining much-needed new
open space on those lands to support and accommodate future
population growth and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
(i) San Francisco has already demonstrated the viability of
open-space uses under Caltrans freeways through various completed and
successful projects. In the Mission Bay Area, San Francisco operates
several recreational uses under Interstate 280, including volleyball
and basketball courts, as well as pedestrian walkways. In the SoMa
West area under the Route 101 Central Freeway, San Francisco leased
two Caltrans parcels and built a very popular dog park and skatepark.
The leases for these projects, which San Francisco negotiated
carefully in partnership with Caltrans, could serve as models for a
framework of more financially feasible open-space projects.
(j) With an under-freeway open-space framework in place, San
Francisco could more readily meet its SB 375 goals. If this lower
land cost opportunity was established, the under-freeway open-space
projects could become financially feasible and San Francisco would be
able to localize the decisionmaking process for these new open-space
uses. This would allow San Francisco the flexibility to coordinate
and plan locally and to more comprehensively plan to accommodate
future population growth and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
SEC. 2. Section 104.16 of the Streets and Highways Code is amended
to read:
104.16. (a) (1) Any airspace under a
freeway, or real property acquired for highway purposes, in the City
and County of San Francisco, that is not excess property, may be
leased by the department to the city and county or a political
subdivision of the city and county or a state agency for purposes of
an emergency shelter or feeding program. Any
(2) Any airspace under or
adjacent to a freeway, or other real property acquired for highway
purposes, in the City and County of San Francisco, which is not
excess property and is within a priority development area, shall be
leased on a first right of refusal basis by the department to the
city and county, a political subdivision of the city and county, or a
state agency for park, recreational, or open-space purposes.
(b) (1) The lease amount for emergency
shelter or feeding programs shall be for one dollar ($1) per month.
The
(2) For up to 10 parcels, the
lease amount for park, recreational, or open-space purposes shall be
10 percent or less of the average fair market lease value of the
applicable parcel, demonstrated through documented lease examples
determined through either the average of fair market leases for the
applicable parcel over the previous five years, or, in the absence of
these recent fair market rate examples for the applicable parcel, an
average of the fair market leases over the previous five years for
the three department parcels in closest proximity to the applicable
parcel. The
(3) With respect to a lease for an
emergency shelter or feeding program or for park, recreational, or
open-space purposes, the lease amount may be paid in advance of
the term covered in order to reduce the administrative costs
associated with the payment of the monthly rental fee. The lease
shall require the payment of an administrative fee not to exceed five
hundred dollars ($500) per year, unless the department determines
that a higher administrative fee is necessary, for the department's
cost of administering the lease.
(c) In the case of a lease for park, recreational, or open-space
purposes, the lease shall require the lessee to fund and construct
associated infrastructure, and to accept full responsibility for
liability associated to the uses, except as otherwise provided in the
lease. The lease shall require the lessee to be responsible for all
nonhighway-related maintenance costs associated with those uses,
except as otherwise provided in the lease. The lease shall authorize
the lessee, at its discretion, to subsidize its associated
maintenance costs through generation of revenue under a limited
revenue generation model, such as from limited parking facilities or
retail use located on or contiguous to the leased property, if any
revenues generated that exceed the associated maintenance costs are
shared with the state, at a rate not less than 50 percent of those
excess revenues, with that amount to be deposited in the State
Highway Account.
(d) As used in this section, "priority development area" means a
neighborhood within walking distance of frequent transit service that
offers a wide variety of housing options and that features various
amenities, including grocery stores, community centers, open space,
and restaurants.
(e) The Legislature finds and declares that the lease of real
property pursuant to this section serves a public purpose.