BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNANCE AND FINANCE Senator Robert M. Hertzberg, Chair 2015 - 2016 Regular ------------------------------------------------------------------ |Bill No: |AB 2651 |Hearing |6/8/16 | | | |Date: | | |----------+---------------------------------+-----------+---------| |Author: |Gomez |Tax Levy: |No | |----------+---------------------------------+-----------+---------| |Version: |5/25/16 |Fiscal: |Yes | ------------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Consultant|Favorini-Csorba | |: | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Greenway easements Makes clarifying changes to state law authorizing the use of greenway easements. Background General Plans and Open Space Elements. Each city and county must prepare and periodically update a comprehensive, long-range general plan to guide future decisions. That plan must address each of seven elements, including land use, circulation, housing, conservation, open space, noise, and safety elements. Cities and counties may also include optional elements that address other aspects of their communities, such as parks and recreation, public facilities, and economic development. Each element defines how the city or county envisions particular aspects of a community in the future. For example, the land use element describes the general location and intensity of various types of current and future land uses, such as industrial, residential, and open space, while the open space element designates land to be kept largely unimproved to serve uses that require open spaces, including environmental preservation, natural resource production, outdoor recreation, and protection of historical sites. A general plan must be internally consistent; all of the individual elements must use compatible assumptions and cannot conflict with one another. AB 2651 (Gomez) 5/25/16 Page 2 of ? Greenway Easements. Last year, the Legislature enacted AB 1251 (Gomez, 2015), which authorizes certain entities to acquire easements for the purpose of developing greenways along urban waterways. These "greenway easements" act as an enforceable restriction on the use of property that dedicates the land for the purpose of developing greenways along urban waterways. Greenway easements are permanent provisions placed into a deed, will, or other legal instrument and are binding on successive owners of the land. AB 1251 defined a greenway as a separate path for bikes and pedestrians that must be located within 400 yards of an urban waterway where access to the property has been granted through some sort of agreement with the property owner or operator of any facilities on the land. Additionally, a greenway must: Contain landscaping that (1) improves rivers and streams, (2) provides flood protection benefits, and (3) incorporates the significance and value of natural, historical, and cultural resources as documented in the local agency's applicable planning document; Provide nearby communities with easy access to the path and include features that allow the use of the path, such as lighting and other public amenities; Meet any design standards for greenways that are set by a relevant local agency's planning documents. AB 1251 also defined an urban waterway to be a creek, stream, or river that crosses developed property or open space where the relevant local agency's planning document designates the land as residential, commercial, or industrial. AB 1251 specified that greenways could be designated in the open space element of a city or county's general plan. Some planners want to make sure that existing greenways are preserved and that the development of new greenways does not result in the loss of open space land. Proposed Law Assembly Bill 2651: Allows greenway easements to be used to preserve AB 2651 (Gomez) 5/25/16 Page 3 of ? existing greenways. Requires greenway easements that are used to develop new greenways to be consistent with relevant restoration efforts along the urban waterway, if any. Allows local governments to designate greenways in the land use element of their general plans. Provides that greenways may only include public amenities in "urbanized areas," as defined by the California Environmental Quality Act. State Revenue Impact No estimate. Comments 1. Purpose of the bill . Greenways can promote economic development, environmental conservation, public health, and the overall quality of life by enhancing the ability of residents to connect with natural spaces near and along urban waterways. Last year, the Legislature took an important step to promote their development by passing AB 1251 (Gomez, 2015), which allows government agencies and nonprofit organizations to use greenway easements to ensure that land developed as a greenway stays that way in perpetuity, instead of being converted to other, more intensive uses in the future. AB 2651 makes clarifying changes to the greenway easements statute in order to limit the development of amenities to within an urbanized area, clarify that a greenway easement may be used to preserve greenways adjacent to urban waterways as well as develop new ones, and moves greenways from the open-space element to a more appropriate location in the land use element of a general plan. These changes further the intent of the original measure and are consistent with existing laws regarding the development and preservation of open space. 2. Mandate . The California Constitution generally requires the state to reimburse local agencies for their costs when the state imposes new programs or additional duties on them. According to AB 2651 (Gomez) 5/25/16 Page 4 of ? the Legislative Counsel's Office, AB 2651 creates a new state-mandated local program because it revises the requirements of mandatory local plans. AB 2651 disclaims this liability by stating that no reimbursement is required under the Constitution because local agencies have the authority to levy fees sufficient to cover the cost of the increased services. However, the bill also provides that if the Commission on State Mandates determines there to be a reimbursable mandate, local agencies must be reimbursed pursuant to an existing statutory process. 3. Urgency . Regular statutes take effect on January 1 following their enactment; bills passed in 2016 take effect on January 1, 2017. The California Constitution allows bills with urgency clauses to take effect immediately if they're needed for the public peace, health, and safety. AB 2651 contains an urgency clause declaring that it is necessary for its provisions to go into effect immediately in order to timely facilitate the orderly and efficient implementation of AB 1251 (Gomez, 2015). Assembly Actions Assembly Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committee: 12-0 Assembly Floor: 76-0 Support and Opposition (6/2/16) Support : Unknown. Opposition : Unknown. -- END --