SB 940, as amended, Vidak. High-Speed Rail Authority: eminent domain: right of first refusal.
Existing law creates the High-Speed Rail Authority with specified powers, including the power to acquire rights-of-way through purchase or eminent domain, and duties relating to the development and implementation of an intercity high-speed rail system. Existing law, pursuant to the Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century, authorizes $9.95 billion in general obligation bonds for high-speed rail development and other related purposes.
Under existing law, if the authority determines that real property or an interest therein acquired by the state for high-speed rail purposes is no longer necessary for those purposes, the authority is authorized to sell or exchange the real property or interest therein at fair market value as specified.
This bill wouldbegin delete instead require the authority to sell or exchange the real property or interest therein if it is no longer necessary for high-speed rail purposes. The bill would alsoend delete
require thebegin delete authority to offer the person, or his or her next of kin, from whom the real property or interest therein was acquired the right of first refusal to purchase the property at fair market value, unless the authority acting in good faith is unable to locate the person, or his or her next of kin, within 180 days of the authority’s initial attempt to locate the person.end deletebegin insert authority, if selling the real property or interest therein, to send notification by certified mail to the last known owner of the real property or interest therein at his or her last known address, advising him or her that the real property or interest therein will be offered for sale. The bill would require the authority to wait at least 30 days after the notification has been sent to sell the real property or interest therein.end insert
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Vote: 2⁄3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
Section 185040 of the Public Utilities Code is
2amended to read:
(a) If the authority determines that real property or
4an interest therein, previously or hereafter acquired by the state
5for high-speed rail purposes, is no longer necessary for those
6purposes, the authoritybegin delete shallend deletebegin insert mayend insert sell or exchange the real property
7or interest therein at fair market value in the manner set forth in
8this section.
9(b) begin delete(1) Notwithstanding
subdivision (c) and prior end delete
10selling the real property or interest therein in any other manner
11authorized under this section, the authority shallbegin delete offer the person, begin insert send notification by certified mail
12or his or her next of kin, from whom the real property or interest
13therein was acquired the right of first refusal to purchase the
14property at fair market value.end delete
15to the last known owner of the real property or interest therein at
16his or her last known address, advising him or her that the real
17property or interest therein will be offered for sale. The authority
18shall not sell the real property or interest therein until at least 30
19days after the notification has been
sent.end insert
20(2) This requirement shall be met if the person, or his or her
21next of kin, from whom the real property or interest therein was
22acquired does not choose to purchase the property within a
23reasonable time and at fair market value, or if the authority acting
24in good faith is unable to locate the person, or his or her next of
P3 1kin, from whom the property was acquired within 180 days of the
2authority’s initial attempt to locate the person.
3(c) The authority may sell the property to an adjoining
4landowner if it makes either of the following findings:
5(1) (A) That the property is of a size or shape that it is below
6the average normal standard size and shape of other privately
7owned properties in the immediate neighborhood, and that if the
8property were sold to other than the adjoining owner, it would give
9rise to a land use development thereof that would be below and
10not consistent with the normal land use of other properties in that
11neighborhood, (B) that the sale of the property to a party other
12than the adjoining owner may cause an undue or unfair hardship
13to the adjoining owner in the normal land use development or
14operation of his or her property, (C) that the property considered
15as part of the adjoining property would have a higher and better
16use than under separate ownership, and (D) that the fair market
17value of the property considered as part of the adjoining property
18would be higher than under separate
ownership.
19(2) (A) That the sale of the excess parcel to other than the
20adjoining owner would deprive the adjoining owner of an existing
21vested right of access to a public highway and thereby create a
22possible cause of action against the authority or the state.
23(B) A sale to an adjoining landowner pursuant to this subdivision
24may be by contract to sell or trust deed. The payment period in a
25contract of sale or sale by trust deed shall not extend longer than
2610 years from the time the contract of sale or trust deed is executed,
27and a transaction involving a contract of sale or sale by trust deed
28to private parties shall require a downpayment of at least 30 percent
29of the purchase price.
30(d) The
authority may sell the property to municipalities or other
31local agencies at their request, without calling for competitive bids,
32at a price representing the fair market value thereof, and upon a
33determination that the intended use is for a public purpose.
34(e) If it is improved property, the property may be sold to a
35former owner who has remained in occupancy, or to a residential
36tenant of a tenure of five years or more with all rent obligations
37current or paid in full.
38(f) Any real property or interest therein may in like manner be
39exchanged, either as whole or part consideration, for any other
40real property or interest therein as needed for high-speed rail
P4 1purposes. This provision does not authorize exchanges where the
2value of the state-owned property exceeds the value of the
property
3the authority seeks to acquire, unless the excess value is incidental
4and subdivision of the state-owned property, in order to produce
5a smaller parcel of equal value to the value of the property the
6authority seeks to acquire, would reduce the total value of the
7state-owned property.
8(g) Except as otherwise provided in this section, property shall
9be sold either by receipt of competitive sealed bids, or at public
10auction, whichever method is determined by the authority to be
11more likely to achieve the higher sales price.
12(h) Any payments received under this section for the sale of
13real property no longer necessary for high-speed rail purposes shall
14be deposited in the High-Speed Rail Property Fund created
15pursuant to Section 185045, and shall be available to the
authority
16upon appropriation as provided in that section.
This act is an urgency statute necessary for the
18immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within
19the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into
20immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
21In order to protect private property rights, it is necessary for this
22act to take effect immediately.
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