BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                     SB 236


                                                                    Page  1





          SENATE THIRD READING


          SB  
          236 (Beall)


          As Amended  June 24, 2015


          Majority vote


          SENATE VOTE:  36-0


           ------------------------------------------------------------------ 
          |Committee       |Votes|Ayes                  |Noes                |
          |                |     |                      |                    |
          |                |     |                      |                    |
          |                |     |                      |                    |
          |----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
          |Transportation  |15-0 |Frazier, Achadjian,   |                    |
          |                |     |Baker, Bloom, Campos, |                    |
          |                |     |Chu, Daly, Dodd,      |                    |
          |                |     |Eduardo Garcia,       |                    |
          |                |     |Gomez, Kim, Linder,   |                    |
          |                |     |Medina, Nazarian,     |                    |
          |                |     |O'Donnell             |                    |
          |                |     |                      |                    |
          |                |     |                      |                    |
           ------------------------------------------------------------------ 


          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  








                                                                     SB 236


                                                                    Page  2





            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  
            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  








                                                                     SB 236


                                                                    Page  3





            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:  None


          COMMENTS:  The author introduced this bill 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.  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 this bill 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  








                                                                     SB 236


                                                                    Page  4





          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:  This bill 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 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 this bill 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  








                                                                     SB 236


                                                                    Page  5





          options in the case of the wildly unforeseen popularity of the  
          Grand Staircase.  The city is struggling to manage this  
          attractive nuisance and this bill provides some relief.  




          Analysis Prepared by:                                             
                          Janet Dawson / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093  FN:  
          0001233