BILL NUMBER: AB 1527 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE JULY 11, 1997
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 30, 1997
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 21, 1997
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 8, 1997
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 14, 1997
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Brown
FEBRUARY 28, 1997
An act to add Section 66451.25 Sections
66451.22 and 66451.23 to the Government Code, relating to land
use.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1527, as amended, Brown. Subdivision Map Act: Napa County.
The existing Subdivision Map Act generally regulates the division
of land for purposes of sale, lease, and finance. That act prohibits
the sale, lease, or financing of any parcel, the commencement of
construction of any building for sale, lease, or financing, except
for model homes, or the occupancy of any parcel or building for which
a final or parcel map is required under the act, until the map has
been filed for record in the county in which the subdivision is
located.
The Subdivision Map Act additionally regulates the merger of
parcels for purposes of the act. The act authorizes a local agency
to provide by ordinance for these mergers, as specified. Existing
law permits a local agency to provide for the merger of a parcel or
unit with a contiguous parcel or unit held by the same owner, under
specified circumstances, if any one of the contiguous parcels or
units held by the same owner does not conform to standards for
minimum parcel size, under the zoning ordinance of the local agency
applicable to the parcels or units of land. Also, under the act, a
person owning real property, or a vendee of that person, as
specified, may request, and the local agency with jurisdiction is
required to determine, whether the real property complies with the
provisions of the act and any local ordinances enacted pursuant to
it, and to subsequently issue a certificate of compliance or a
conditional certificate of compliance reflecting that determination.
This bill would permit the County of Napa to adopt ordinances to
require, as a condition of the issuance of any permit or the grant of
any approval necessary to develop any real property which includes
an undeveloped substandard parcel, as defined, that the undeveloped
substandard parcel be merged into any other parcel or parcels that
are contiguous to it and were held in common ownership on or after
the effective date of the enactment of these provisions, with
specified exemptions. The bill would require the legislative
body of the County of Napa to conduct at least one public meeting
with public testimony relating to any proposed ordinance pursuant to
the bill prior to the noticed public hearing at which the legislative
body proposes to enact the ordinance.
The bill would provide that its provisions shall not be construed
as affecting the right of the County of Napa, pursuant to its
authority under the existing Subdivision Map Act relating to merger
and unmerger of parcels, to merge any parcels of land in the
unincorporated area of that county, including, but not limited to,
those parcels eligible for exemption from an ordinance adopted under
the provisions of this bill.
The California Constitution provides that a local or special
statute is invalid in any case if a general statute can be made
applicable.
This bill would declare that, due to the unique circumstances
within the County of Napa that the bill is intended to remedy, a
general statute within the meaning of specified provisions of the
California Constitution cannot be made applicable and a special
statute is necessary.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 66451.25 66451.22
is added to the Government Code, to read:
66451.25.
66451.22. (a) The Legislature hereby finds and declares
that:
(1) The agricultural area of Napa County has become extremely
important over the last 25 years as a premier winegrape growing
region of worldwide importance and should thereby be protected from
parcelization.
(2) The county has determined that because of the land's
extraordinary agricultural value as a winegrape production area and
the fact that the county's tourism industry entrusts its significant
economic interests to its agricultural and open-space lands, the
highest and best use for the agricultural land in the Napa Valley is
for agricultural production.
(3) The full potential build-out of parcels not previously
recognized in Napa County's agricultural preserve and watershed areas
could devastate the wine industry of California and Napa County.
(4) To adequately protect the value and productivity of the county'
s agricultural lands, Napa County needs relief from the Subdivision
Map Act's implied preemption of local ordinances that may require
merger of parcels that do not meet current zoning and design and
improvement standards as well as the provisions that recognize
parcels created prior to, or before, the current Subdivision Map Act.
(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the County of Napa
may adopt ordinances to require, as a condition of the issuance of
any permit or the grant of any approval necessary to develop any real
property which includes in whole or in part an undeveloped
substandard parcel, that the undeveloped substandard parcel be merged
into any other parcel or parcels that are contiguous to it and were
held in common ownership on or after the effective date of this act,
whether or not the contiguous parcels are a part of the development
application, except as otherwise provided in subdivisions (d) and
(e).
(c) For purposes of this section, "undeveloped substandard parcel"
means a parcel or parcels that qualify as undeveloped pursuant to
subdivision (a) of Section 66451.11, are located in areas designated
as Agricultural Resource (AR) or Agricultural, Watershed, and Open
Space (AWOS) on the General Plan Map of Napa County and are
inconsistent with the parcel size established by the general plan and
any applicable specific plan.
(d) Any ordinance adopted by the County of Napa pursuant to
subdivision (b) shall exempt the following:
(1) Undeveloped substandard parcels for which a conditional or
unconditional certificate of compliance has been issued pursuant to
subdivision (a) or (b) of Section 66499.35, so long as the
application for the certificate of compliance, together with the
documentation required by the County of Napa on or before August 1,
1997, to commence the processing of an application, is filed on or
before the effective date of this act; provided that this exemption
shall not be applicable to conditional certificates of compliance,
whenever issued, if the parcels involved were created on or after
January 1, 1997, in a manner not in compliance with this division or
local ordinances enacted pursuant thereto.
(2) Substandard parcels created by the recordation of a final or
parcel map approved by the County of Napa on or after December 29,
1955.
(3) Substandard parcels lawfully created by the recordation of a
record of survey prior to February 27, 1969.
(4) Property that has been assigned an assessor's parcel number
and depicted on the assessor's parcel maps in existence on or after
January 1, 1997, as a single parcel, provided that the owner of that
single parcel, prior to filing an application development, records a
document merging any underlying parcel lines that may exist, provided
further that this exemption shall not be applicable to property that
is either marked "separated for assessment purposes (SFAP)" or was
created because of a tax rate area boundary or map page boundary, in
which case only the property previously depicted as a parcel on the
assessor parcel maps shall be entitled to the exemption.
(4) Notwithstanding Section 1093 of the Civil Code, property that
in the most recently recorded deed, mortgage, patent, deed of trust,
contract of sale, or other instrument of conveyance or security
document, described by means of a consolidated legal description,
whether or not such legal description is comprised of one or more
previously existing legal descriptions, provided the owner of same
prior to filing an application for development records a document
merging any underlying parcel lines that may exist.
(e) Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision (b), the Board
of Supervisors of the County of Napa shall not require merger or
condition or deny the issuance of any permit or the grant of any
approval necessary to develop any real property in a manner that
would constitute a taking of the landowner's property in violation of
the United States and California Constitutions.
SEC. 2.
(f) Nothing contained in this act
section shall be construed as affecting the right of the County
of Napa, pursuant to the provisions of Article 1.5 (commencing with
Section 66451.10) and Article 1.7 (commencing with Section 66451.30),
to merge any parcels of land in the unincorporated area of that
county, including, but not limited to, any parcels eligible for the
exemption as described in subdivision (d) of Section
66451.25 66451.22 .
SEC. 2. Section 66451.23 is added to the Government Code, to read:
66451.23. Prior to adopting any ordinance authorized by Section
66451.22, the legislative body of the County of Napa shall conduct at
least one public meeting at which local officials shall allow public
testimony regarding the proposed ordinance in addition to the
noticed public hearing at which the legislative body proposes to
enact the ordinance.
SEC. 3. The Legislature finds and declares that, because of the
unique circumstances applicable only to the County of Napa, as
are more fully set forth in subdivision (a) of Section 66451.22,
a statute of general applicability cannot be enacted within the
meaning of subdivision (b) of Section 16 of Article IV of the
California Constitution. Therefore, this special statute is
necessary.