BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 110
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   April 22, 2009

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Kevin De Leon, Chair

                  AB 110 (Smyth) - As Introduced:  January 13, 2009 

          Policy Committee:                              Natural  
          ResourcesVote:7-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:              No

           SUMMARY  

          This bill modifies the area that can be included within the  
          boundaries of the Rim of the Valley Trail Corridor (corridor),  
          under the jurisdiction of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy  
          (SMMC), to include Elsmere Canyon and its watershed.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Substantial cost pressures, potentially in the millions of  
          dollars, resulting from expansion of the corridor boundaries to  
          include Elsmere Canyon.  Such an expansion would require an  
          allocation of a portion of the $56 million of Prop 84 bond  
          proceeds earmarked for the SMMC for land acquisition or from  
          other state funds.

           COMMENTS  

           1)Rationale  .  This bill allows lands in and adjacent to Elsmere  
            Canyon (near the City of Santa Clarita in Los Angeles County)  
            to be included in the corridor.  Existing statute currently  
            excludes the Elsmere Canyon lands from inclusion in the  
            corridor because the primary landowner was trying to site a  
            solid waste landfill there.  The landowner has abandoned his  
            plans for a landfill and is prepared to consider selling the  
            land to the SMMC for inclusion in the corridor. This bill is  
            identical to AB 1180 (Runner, 2008), which passed the Assembly  
            74-3 and received a generic veto applied to numerous enrolled  
            bills. 

           2)History  .  In 1983, the SMMC zone was expanded by the  
            Legislature to include the corridor.  Whitney Canyon and  








                                                                  AB 110
                                                                  Page  2

            Elsmere Canyon were intended to be included in the corridor.   
            By 1990, Elsmere Canyon, owned by BKK Corporation, had been  
            placed on a list of preferred landfill sites by the Los  
            Angeles County Sanitation Districts.  In 1997, AB 1743  
            (Runner), introduced to add both Whitney and Elsmere Canyons  
            to the corridor, died in the Assembly Natural Resources  
            Committee.  In 1998, Los Angeles County adopted a countywide  
            landfill siting element that identified Elsmere Canyon as a  
            proposed solid waste facility.

            AB 339 (Runner) - Chapter 377, Statutes of 1999 allowed the  
            SMMC to modify the boundaries of the corridor in the vicinity  
            of Placerita Canyon State Park but explicitly specified this  
            authority would not affect any portion of Elsmere Canyon and  
            the decision whether or not to permit Elsmere Canyon as a  
            solid waste landfill.

            Since the Elsmere Canyon landowner, now BFI of California  
            Inc., has abandoned its plans to develop Elsmere Canyon into a  
            solid waste landfill, the path is clear to expand the  
            boundaries of the corridor to include the canyon.

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Jay Dickenson / APPR. / (916) 319-2081