BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                     SB 236


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          Date of Hearing:   July 13, 2015


                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION


                                 Jim Frazier, Chair


          SB  
          236 (Beall)  - As Amended June 24, 2015


          SENATE VOTE:  36-0


          SUBJECT:  Public streets, highways, and public service  
          easements.


          SUMMARY:  Authorizes the City of San Jose to summarily vacate a  
          public staircase.  Specifically, this bill:


          1)Authorizes the City of San Jose, until January 1, 2018, to  
            summarily vacate a public service easement located between two  
            specific streets if it finds that the vacation will protect  
            the public safety or otherwise serve the public interest and  
            convenience.


          2)Authorizes the city to reserve and except from the vacation an  
            easement to construct, maintain, operate, replace, remove, and  
            renew a non-vehicular pathway for public use.


          3) Makes legislative and findings that the need for this special  
            law is justified because of the "unique circumstances" facing  
            the City of San Jose with regard to the public service  








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            easement.  


          EXISTING LAW: 


          1)Authorizes a local agency to summarily vacate a public service  
            easement under one of the following conditions:


             a)   The public service easement has not been used for its  
               intended purpose for a prolonged period;


             b)   The date of the public easement dedication is at least a  
               year prior to, but less than five years from, the date of  
               the proposed vacation, and the easement has not been used  
               continuously since that date; or  


             c)   The easement has been superseded by relocation and there  
               are no other public facilities located within the easement.


          2)Prohibits summary vacation of a public easement if there are  
            in-place public utility facilities that are in use and would  
            be affected by the vacation.


          3)Sets forth procedures local agencies are to follow to vacate  
            or reserve easements.


          FISCAL EFFECT:  Unknown


          COMMENTS:  The author introduced SB 236 to allow the City of San  
          Jose to enact a curfew and other regulations on what is known as  
          the Grand Staircase in the Communications Hill area of the city.  








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           The Grand Staircase is a 200-step staircase that leads through  
          a residential area to the top of the hill.  The staircase was  
          designed to be a highlight of a walkable community envisioned to  
          include residential, commercial-retail space, and industrial  
          parks, all linked with trails and serviced by public transit.   
          However, thanks to social media, the staircase has become a  
          destination recreational facility, drawing people from  
          throughout the city for outdoor workouts, including pre-dawn  
          fitness boot camps.  The popularity of the staircase also  
          attracts illegal activities such as drug use, public drinking,  
          litter, vandalism, and other misconduct at all hours of the day  
          and night.  


          The City of San Jose is sponsoring SB 236 so that it can impose  
          a curfew on the staircase with the hopes that it can curb  
          excessive activities that annoy nearby residents during  
          late-night and early-morning hours.  

          The staircase is dedicated as a pedestrian access easement,  
          private ingress and egress easement, emergency access easement,  
          and public service easement.  However, according to city  
          attorneys, these designations do not allow the city to impose a  
          curfew on the staircase.  The city is seeking to vacate the  
          public service easement but reserve an easement for something  
          akin to a park trail, for which it has the authority to impose a  
          curfew.  

          Committee concerns:  SB 236 presents an unorthodox solution to a  
          frustrating neighborhood problem.  The City of San Jose would  
          like to be able to keep people off the Grand Staircase during  
          late-night and early-morning hours but the city has found few  
          tools with which to accomplish this.  For example, existing law  
          already authorizes local governments to summarily vacate public  
          easements but only under a few very specific conditions, most  
          notably that the easement has not been used for the purpose for  
          which it was dedicated or acquired.  In the case of San Jose's  
          Grand Staircase, this is most definitely not the case.  The  
          staircase, which was dedicated as a pedestrian easement, is used  








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          extensively for pedestrian traffic.


          Also, a local agency can impose temporary closures or curfews on  
          public easements if it finds that doing so is in the interest of  
          public safety.  In the case of the staircase, the city suggests  
          that such a finding is not supportable because, for example,  
          there are no records of heightened police activity on the  
          staircase to suggest a threat to public safety.  


          Furthermore, the city has signs posted to notice enforcement  
          against nuisance activities such as excessive noise, littering,  
          loitering, obstructing the stairs, and vandalism.  These  
          ordinances are insufficient to curb the activities that are  
          vexing the Communications Hill residents such as loud  
          conversations in the middle of the night just a few feet from  
          front doors of nearby residents.


          The solution presented in SB 236 is not a perfect one.  Keeping  
          the public from accessing public right of way should not be  
          taken for granted.  However, city officials have few other  
          options in the case of the wildly unforeseen popularity of the  
          Grand Staircase.  The city is struggling to manage this  
          attractive nuisance and SB 236 provides some relief.  


          REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:




          Support


          City of San Jose (Sponsor)










                                                                     SB 236


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          Strangis Properties


          Tuscany Hills Homeowners' Association Board of Directors




          Opposition


          None on file




          Analysis Prepared by:Janet Dawson / TRANS. / (916)  
          319-2093