BILL NUMBER: SB 170	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  MARCH 25, 2009

INTRODUCED BY   Senator Florez

                        FEBRUARY 14, 2009

   An act to add Section 51282.15 to the Government Code, relating to
agricultural lands.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 170, as amended, Florez. Agricultural lands: cancellation of
Williamson Act contracts.
   Existing law authorizes a landowner to petition a county board or
supervisors or a city council for cancellation of any Williamson Act
contract for all or part of the subject land. The board or council is
authorized to grant tentative approval for cancellation of a
contract if it finds that cancellation is in the public interest. For
these purposes, the board or council is required to find that other
public concerns substantially outweigh the objectives of the
Williamson Act and that either there is no proximate noncontracted
land that is both available and suitable for the use to which it is
proposed the contracted land be put, or that development of the
contracted land would provide more contiguous patterns of urban
development than development of proximate noncontracted land.
   This bill would establish a rebuttable presumption that where
 a Native American tribe or tribal group   a
federally recognized Indian tribe  has petitioned for a contract
cancellation that tribal cultural centers, infrastructure, and
housing are alterative uses that are public concerns that
substantially outweigh the objectives of the act and that for tribal
cultural centers, infrastructure, and housing, land contiguous to
existing tribal land would provide more contiguous patterns of urban
development than development of proximate noncontracted land.
   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 51282.15 is added to the Government Code, to
read:
   51282.15.  Where a  Native American tribe or tribal group
  federally recognized Indian tribe  has petitioned
for a contract cancellation pursuant to this article, a rebuttable
presumption exists that tribal cultural centers, infrastructure, and
housing are alterative uses that are public concerns that
substantially outweigh the objectives of this chapter for the finding
required pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (c) of Section
51282, and that for tribal cultural centers, infrastructure, and
housing, land contiguous to  existing tribal land 
 an existing Indian Reservation, as defined by Section 151.2 of
Title 25 of the Code of Federal Regulations,  would provide more
contiguous patterns of urban development than development of
proximate noncontracted land for the finding required pursuant to
paragraph (2) of subdivision (c) of Section 51282. This section shall
not be interpreted to narrow the circumstances under which a board
or council may approve a petition pursuant to Section 51282 where
 other grounds for approval exist if  one or both of the
presumptions do not apply or have been rebutted.