BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2730
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Date of Hearing: April 18, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Jim Frazier, Chair
AB 2730
(Alejo) - As Amended April 25, 2016
SUBJECT: Department of Transportation: Prunedale Bypass:
County of Monterey: disposition of excess properties
SUMMARY: Directs proceeds from the sale of surplus property
originally purchased for the Prunedale Bypass to the State
Highway Account for highway projects in the State Highway 101
corridor in Monterey County, and exempts these proceeds from the
north/south split and county share formulas.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Allows Caltrans to acquire any real property that it considers
necessary for state highway purposes.
2)Allows Caltrans, whenever it determines that any real property
acquired by the state for highway purposes is no longer
necessary for those purposes, to sell or exchange it in the
manner and upon terms, standards, and conditions established
by the CTC.
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3)Requires Caltrans, to the greatest extent possible, to offer
to sell or exchange excess real property within one year from
the date that it determines the property is excess.
4)Generally requires state and local agencies, prior to
disposing of excess lands, first to offer property for sale or
lease to local public agencies, housing authorities, or
redevelopment agencies within whose jurisdiction the property
is located. Requires Caltrans to give priority first to
entities agreeing to use the land for low- or moderate-income
housing then to entities for open-space purposes, school
facilities construction, enterprise zone purposes, and infill
opportunities, in that order.
5)Directs the proceeds from the sale of excess property to be
deposited first to the SHA and then transferred to the
Transportation Debt Service Fund to pay debt service on
general obligation transportation bonds.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS: The author introduced AB 2730 on behalf of TAMC.
TAMC is responsible for developing and maintaining a multimodal
transportation system in Monterey County. TAMC is hopeful that
the proceeds from the sale of properties related to the
Prunedale Bypass can be directed to "much-needed and
long-deferred highway improvements."
The Prunedale Bypass, a project to re-route State Highway 101
around the community of Prunedale, has been on the books since
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the 1950s. In an effort to preserve right-of-way related to the
planned project, Caltrans bought over 140 parcels totaling 353
acres. The Prunedale Bypass has since been abandoned and is no
longer in the area's long-range plans.
In the meantime, the area has moved forward with incremental
improvements to address growing congestion and safety concerns.
The Prunedale Improvement Project is the most ambitious of these
incremental improvements. The purpose of the project is to
improve safety along State Highway 101 and intersecting local
roadways, improve traffic flow along the corridor, and improve
accessibility to area homes, businesses, and services. The
Prunedale Improvement Project represents only a portion of the
broader improvements envisioned in the Prunedale Bypass project.
Like the bypass project, other projects elsewhere in the state
have similarly languished and similarly left property unused for
decades. In two of these cases, legislation was enacted to
facilitate the sale of the property and the return of the
proceeds to the corridor for which the properties were
originally purchased. Specifically, SB 791 (Corbett), Chapter
705, Statutes of 2008, authorized the use of revenues from sales
of excess properties for projects in a local alternative
transportation improvement program that replaced the
long-planned Hayward Bypass on State Route (SR) 238 and
improvements to SR 84. More recently, SB 416 (Liu), Chapter
468, Statutes of 2013, directed the revenue from the sale of
surplus properties in the SR 710 corridor in Los Angeles County
to local transportation improvements.
AB 2730 gives Caltrans the opportunity to fully vet the
potential use of unused properties and to hold on to properties
that it may use in the near future. Furthermore, AB 2730
directs the proceeds from any of the Prunedale Bypass properties
it does sell to improvement projects within the State Highway
101 corridor, similar to situation presented in SB 791 and SB
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419. This will ensure that AB 2730 does not set precedent
beyond closing the books on these decades' old projects.
Related legislation: AB 2411 (Frazier), limits the use of
miscellaneous revenue generated by Caltrans, for example, from
the sale of surplus property, to transportation purposes only.
AB 2411 is currently in Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Previous legislation: SB 416 (Liu), Chapter 468, Statutes of
2013, among other things, directed the proceeds from the sale of
properties in the SR 710 corridor to the SR 710 Rehabilitation
Account for the purpose of making required repairs to homes
being purchased by income-qualified residents in the corridor.
SB 791 (Corbett) Chapter 705, Statutes of 2008, among other
provisions, authorized proceeds from the sale of surplus
property to be used to develop the local alternative
transportation improvements in the SR 84 and SR 238 corridors.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Transportation Agency for Monterey County (Sponsor)
Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments
City of Del Rey Oaks
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City of Greenfield
City of Marina
City of Monterey
City of Pacific Grove
City of Salinas
City of Sand City
City of Seaside
County of Monterey
Grower-Shipper Association of Central California
Monterey Bay Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Monterey County Farm Bureau
Monterey County Hospitality Association
Monterey-Salinas Transit District
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Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by:Janet Dawson / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093