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 Introduced February 19, 2016
SUBJECT: Department of Transportation: Prunedale Bypass:
County of Monterey: disposition of excess properties
SUMMARY: Declares properties originally purchased for the
Prunedale Bypass in Monterey County as excess; directs the
California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to sell the
properties and direct the proceeds from the sale of the
properties to highway projects in Monterey County.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Declares as excess properties that were originally acquired by
Caltrans for the Prunedale Bypass and no longer required by
Caltrans for the alternative project undertaken in place of
the bypass. These alternative improvements are referred to as
the Prunedale Improvement project.
2)Directs Caltrans to expeditiously dispose of these excess
properties.
3)Directs proceeds from the sales of the excess properties, less
any reimbursements due to the federal government and all costs
associated with selling the properties, to be reserved in the
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State Highway Account (SHA) for programming and allocation by
the California Transportation Commission (CTC), with the
concurrence of the Transportation Agency for Monterey County
(TAMC), to other state highway projects in Monterey County.
4)Exempts these proceeds from 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.
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
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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
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
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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.
Committee comments and suggested amendments: Although Caltrans
is supposed to declare unneeded properties as surplus as soon as
is practicable, it is reportedly holding onto the Prunedale
Bypass properties in anticipation that it may be able to use
them for future project mitigation purposes. This bill could
force Caltrans to sell these properties before fully
understanding whether or not they may be needed for future,
planned improvements in the State Highway 101 corridor.
Moreover, this bill strays some from situations addressed in SB
791 and SB 416 in that, in those bills, the proceeds from the
sale of surplus properties were directed back into the corridor
for which they were originally purchased. AB 2730, on the other
hand, provides that the proceeds should be reserved for other
highway improvement projects anywhere in Monterey County.
AB 2730 could be improved with amendments to delete the
requirement that Caltrans declare the properties as surplus and
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sell them immediately. This will give Caltrans the opportunity
to fully vet the potential use of the properties and to hold on
to properties that it can potentially use in the foreseeable
future. Furthermore, AB 2730 should direct the proceeds from
any of the Prunedale Bypass properties it does sell to
improvement projects within the State Highway 101 corridor,
similar to the other legislation. 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.
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)
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Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments
City of Del Rey Oaks
City of Greenfield
City of Marina
City of Pacific Grove
City of Salinas
City of Sand City
City of Seaside
County of Monterey
Grower-Shipper Association of Central California
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