BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2664|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2664
Author: Chesbro (D)
Amended: 6/16/10 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE NATURAL RES. & WATER COMMITTEE : 5-2, 6/9/10
AYES: Pavley, Kehoe, Lowenthal, Simitian, Wolk
NOES: Cogdill, Huff
NO VOTE RECORDED: Hollingsworth, Padilla
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 69-1, 5/17/10 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Public lands: State Lands Commission:
violations
SOURCE : State Lands Commission
DIGEST : This bill prohibits certain activities on state
lands under the State Lands commissions (Commission)
jurisdiction without an applicable easement, lease, or
permit. Subjects a violator to penalties and authorizes
the Commission to pursue an administrative action to obtain
legal remedies.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law
CONTINUED
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1. Establishes the Commission in the Natural Resources
Agency for the purposes of managing state lands,
waterways, and resources through economic development,
protection, preservation, and restoration.
2. Provides that a person who trespasses on lands under the
jurisdiction of the Commission, including tidelands,
submerged lands, beds of navigable waters, and school
lands, without lawful authority is liable to the state
for damages assessed by a court in a civil action.
3. Authorizes the Commission to "eject" from any tide and
submerged lands, beds of navigable channels, streams,
rivers, creeks, lakes, bays, and inlets under its
jurisdiction, any person, firm, or corporation,
trespassing upon any such lands, through appropriate
action in the courts of this state. The Commission may
recover the costs of ejection through legal action.
This bill:
1. Prohibits a person from constructing, placing,
maintaining, owning, using, or possessing a structure or
facility on land under the Commission's jurisdiction
unless that person has obtained all applicable
easements, leases, or permits.
2. Provides that a structure or facility includes, but is
not limited to, buildings, boat houses, docks, piers,
revetment, fill, pilings, pipelines, groins, jetties,
sea walls, breakwaters, and bulkheads.
3. Subjects anyone who violates the above prohibition to a
penalty of not more than $1,000 a day or assessed a
monthly use and occupancy fee that is not more than 60%
higher than full fair market rental for each day that a
violation occurs. In determining the penalty or fee,
the Commission must consider factors such as the
physical extent of the violation, the degree of
culpability of the violator, the degree of cooperation
of the violator, the record of the violator in
remediating a violation, and other relevant factors.
4. Authorizes the Commission to enjoin a continuing
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violation and to require a violator to remove the
structure or facility at the violator's expense. If the
violator refuses to remove the structure or facility, or
if the violator cannot be located, the Commission may
remove the structure or facility or take may take
ownership of it as a fixture. The Commission may pursue
legal remedies to recover the removal costs from the
violator, including placing a lien on the assets of the
violator.
5. Requires the Commission to obtain the bill's legal
remedies through administrative action or the Attorney
General (AG) through civil action. If the AG prevails
in a civil action, the state must be awarded attorney's
fees and costs.
6. Establishes due process requirements should the
Commission pursue a legal remedy via administrative
action including 30-day notice to an alleged violator.
7. Authorizes the Commission to issue a final order if an
alleged violator fails to appear at the noticed hearing,
which may be scheduled as a regular calendar item at a
properly noticed Commission meeting.
8. Provides a violator with an amnesty period of six months
from the bill's enactment to remedy the violation or to
submit a completed lease application with all fees and
costs to the Commission without being subject to a
penalty or fee.
9. Contains various due process protections for persons
against whom the Commission seeks to impose
administrative action, including a hearing and a 30-day
notice period.
10.Exempts a telegraph or telephone corporation under
tanking specified action and a franchised cable
television corporation, limited to their usage of poles,
conduits, cables, wires, and associated appurtenances
under either their ownership or the ownership of an
electrical corporation from that penalty and fee.
Background
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The Commission is responsible for the management of all
ungranted tidelands and submerged lands owned by the State
and the beds of navigable waterways. These lands must be
managed for the purposes of economic development,
protection, preservation, and restoration and in a manner
that is consistent with the public trust doctrine. The
Commission is also responsible for the management of the
state's School Lands.
Article 2 of Chapter 4 of Division 6 of the Public
Resources Code (commencing with Section 6301) authorizes
the Commission to allow an individual to construct jetties,
sea walls, breakwaters, and other such structures on,
across, or over state lands if the structures are
consistent with the public trust. The commission may
collect fees and rent for the use of lands by the
structures. Lease revenues are deposited into the General
Fund with the exception of revenues generated on the School
Lands, which are deposited into the Teachers' Retirement
Fund.
Under Section 6224.1, any person found trespassing on
commission lands is liable to the state for any damages
through a civil action. Additionally, under Section 6302,
the Commission can eject trespassers through appropriate
action in the state's courts. The Commission may recover
ejectment costs through legal action.
Section 6216.1 allows the Commission to remove manmade
structures on its lands.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/25/10)
State Lands Commission (source)
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office,
"The State Lands Commission is consistently in litigation
over cases that involve a person building a structure on
state lands without proper authorization or violating an
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application if they did request permission. The
Commission's current recourse in the above situation is
generally limited to court action in which the state seeks
rent for the use of state lands and/or an order for the
structure to be removed. In these cases, litigation can be
time consuming and expensive, especially when considering
the value of the remedies sought. Additionally, this
recourse provides no deterrent against future trespasses
because the potential damages against a trespasser are more
or less equal to the cost of paying rent under a valid
lease."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Beall, Bill
Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Block, Blumenfield, Bradford,
Brownley, Buchanan, Carter, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto,
Davis, De La Torre, De Leon, Emmerson, Eng, Evans, Feuer,
Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes, Fuller, Gaines, Galgiani,
Garrick, Gilmore, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi,
Hernandez, Hill, Huber, Huffman, Jones, Knight, Lieu,
Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Miller, Monning,
Nava, Nestande, Niello, Nielsen, V. Manuel Perez,
Portantino, Ruskin, Salas, Saldana, Skinner, Smyth,
Solorio, Audra Strickland, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres,
Torrico, Tran, Villines, John A. Perez
NOES: Blakeslee
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bass, Caballero, Charles Calderon,
DeVore, Furutani, Jeffries, Norby, Silva, Yamada, Vacancy
CTW:do 6/25/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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