BILL ANALYSIS
SB 792
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Date of Hearing: July 8, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Anna Marie Caballero, Chair
SB 792 (Leno) - As Amended: June 30, 2009
SENATE VOTE : 34-2
SUBJECT : Tidelands and submerged lands: City and County of San
Francisco: Candlestick Point and Hunters Point Naval Shipyard.
SUMMARY : Repeals and readopts, with certain revisions, the
Hunters Point Shipyard Conversion Act of 2002 (AB 2964
(Shelley), Chapter 464, Statutes of 2002), the Hunters Point
Shipyard Public Trust Exchange Act (AB 768 (Leno), Chapter 435,
Statutes of 2003), and Section 5006.8 of the Public Resources
Code (relating to land exchanges at Candlestick Point).
Specifically, this bill :
1)Authorizes a public trust land exchange and boundary
settlement within the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency's
(SFRDA) project area, according to a diagram, subject to the
approval of the State Lands Commission (SLC) and certain
specified conditions.
2)Requires SFRDA, upon the expiration of the redevelopment plan
or January 1, 2050, whichever is earlier, to transfer any
trust lands to the City and County of San Francisco (City) at
which point the City would become sole grantee of the trust
lands unless SLC grants an extension of the transfer deadline.
3)Provides SFRDA holds the public trust lands in trust for the
benefit of all the people of the state for purposes of
commerce, navigation, and fisheries, and other public trust
purposes, with those public trust lands no longer subject to
the Burton Act trust.
4)Authorizes the Director of the Department of Parks and
Recreation (DPR) to convey certain portions of the Candlestick
Point State Recreation Area (SRA) in exchange for certain
other lands, consistent with a diagram, and for other
specified forms of consideration, provided the exchange
provides an overall benefit to the state recreation area and
meets certain specified conditions.
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5)Establishes the procedural requirements applicable to the park
land exchange.
6)Includes a legislative finding that the redevelopment project
will further the important statewide interests in
redevelopment, the elimination of blight, and the provision of
affordable housing opportunities. SB 792 repeals Section 3 of
Chapter 2 of the Statutes of 1958, First Extraordinary
Session, which allowed SLC to transfer certain salt marsh and
tide and submerged lands to the City for uses of general
statewide interest, and authorizes the Executive Officer of
SLC to cooperate with SFRDA in the removal of restrictions or
other encumbrances on title imposed pursuant to that section
to facilitate disposition of lands in the project area in
furtherance of the project.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Section 3 of Article X of the California Constitution
prohibits all tidelands within two miles of any incorporated
city, city and county, or town from being granted or sold to a
private party with the exception of tidelands that have been
reserved to the state solely for street purposes. These
tidelands may be sold to a local government or private party
if the Legislature finds that these tidelands are not used or
necessary for navigation purposes. The Legislature may impose
conditions on such a sale in order to protect the public
interest.
2)Pursuant to Chapter 41 of the Statutes of 1851, as amended,
and Chapter 543 of the Statutes of 1867-68, as amended by
Chapter 388 of the Statutes of 1869-70, the state sold certain
tidelands in the City into private ownership. However, some
of the tidelands in the City, including paper streets or
reserved streets, were withheld from sale and reserved to the
state solely for street purposes.
3)Under the Burton Act (Chapter 1333, Statutes of 1968), the
state conveyed certain state tidelands along the San Francisco
waterfront, generally extending from Fisherman's Wharf to
Candlestick Point, to the City in 1969. These lands are
subject to the public trust and are held by the Port of San
Francisco (Port) as trustee, subject to the obligation on the
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part of the City to assume $55 million in state debt
obligations then existing relating to the waterfront
properties.
4)The Hunters Point Shipyard Conversion Act of 2002 granted to,
and vested in, SFRDA all of the state's right, title, and
interest in the Hunters Point trust lands, and, upon
conveyance by the federal government to the agency, in
appurtenances located on Hunters Point submerged lands,
subject to the public trust and the terms and conditions of
the act. The Hunters Point Shipyard Public Trust Exchange Act
approved an exchange of public trust lands within the Hunters
Point Shipyard, whereby certain trust lands that meet
specified criteria and are not useful for public trust
purposes are freed from the public trust and may be conveyed
into private ownership, and certain other lands that are not
public trust lands and are useful for public trust purposes
are made subject to the public trust. The Director of DPR is
authorized to enter into agreements concerning the development
of a project in the City and partly within the SRA.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
1)According to the author's office, the existing configuration
of trust and nontrust lands within the project area is such
that the purposes of the public trust cannot be fully
realized. A substantial portion of the trust lands are now
interior, reclaimed lands from the San Francisco Bay that are
no longer accessible to navigable waters, or are "reserved
streets" laid out in a grid pattern that is not useful for
public trust purposes. Conversely, other lands within the
project area are adjacent to the waterfront and would have
high value as public trust lands, except they are not subject
to the public trust. The proposed exchange is intended to
maximize overall benefits to the trust. After the exchange,
the entire waterfront within the former shipyard and at
Candlestick Point, as well as certain interior lands that have
high public trust values, will be subject to the public trust.
2)Tide and submerged lands and the beds of lakes, streams, and
other navigable waterways are held in trust by the state for
the benefit of the people of the state and are to be used to
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promote the public's interest in water or water-dependent
activities, such as commerce, navigation, fisheries,
environmental preservation and recreation. SLC is the steward
and manager of the state's public trust lands. Actions of SLC
are subject to the California Environmental Quality Act.
Existing law allows SLC to lease trust lands, enter into
boundary agreements, and exchange public trust lands for
non-trust lands and lift the trust from public trust lands.
SLC must be provided equal value in any exchange. The
Legislature retains the authority to modify uses permitted on
public trust lands.
The Legislature has granted certain public trust lands to local
governments or local agencies for management. A grantee must
manage trust lands consistent with its own granting statutes
and the public trust doctrine. Grantees are generally
entitled to undertake development activities on their trust
lands provided those activities are consistent with the public
trust. The Legislature has retained for the state, by
delegating to SLC, the power to approve land exchanges,
boundary line agreements, and equivalent transactions.
3)The Public Park Preservation Act generally requires parks
agencies, including DPR, to receive either additional land or
compensation when a park is transferred to a nonpark purpose.
The amount of additional land or compensation is generally
required to be equal to the cost of acquiring substitute park
land of comparable characteristics and of substantially equal
size located in an area that could be used by the same persons
who used the existing park land and the transferor is also
entitled to the costs of placing substitute facilities on the
new park land.
For lands obtained by DPR with funds provided by the federal
Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), federal regulations
require that once an area has been funded with LWCF
assistance, it must continually be maintained in public
recreation use unless the National Park Service approves
substitution of property of reasonably equivalent usefulness
and location and of at least equal fair market value, as
determined by an appraisal.
4)The City plans to revitalize the closed Hunters Point Naval
Shipyard and Candlestick Point areas within the City. In June
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2008, the voters in San Francisco approved Measure G, which
integrated the planning processes for the two areas.
Presently, DPR has the SRA at Candlestick Point. It was
purchased with LWCF funds and consists of approximately 40
acres. SB 792 requires the Director of DPR to make a written
finding that all applicable requirements of LWCF have been met
before authorizing the land exchange.
The proposed redevelopment area is large, and the City has big
plans. The redevelopment strategy for the combined area
envisions a new stadium for the San Francisco Forty-Niners,
between 8,500 and 10,000 new residential homes, millions of
square feet of commercial and retail space, and more than
9,000 permanent jobs and 30,000 construction jobs, according
to the findings in SB 792. The proposed redevelopment area
also is being billed as the state's largest center for green
technology companies with the City trying to direct jobs to
the under-served surrounding community of Bayview Hunters
Point.
As part of the redevelopment project, the City wants to
redevelop Candlestick Point and reconfigure the public trust
lands and state park lands within the project area. The
acreage of the park would expand to 80 acres, some of which is
the old shipyard, which has toxic remediation issues. The
redevelopment project would redevelop and expand the park,
grant to SFRDA in trust, specified public trust lands within
the project area, and would authorize SLC and DPR to approve
land exchanges in furtherance of this project. In SB 792, the
remediation of those contaminated sites would be signed off by
the Governor and the Department of Toxic Substances Control,
the Regional Water Quality Control Board, or other appropriate
oversight agency, in consultation with SLC before approving a
deferral under federal environmental law (Comprehensive
Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of
1980 (42 U.S.C. Section 9601 to 9675)).
The current SRA is underutilized and relatively undeveloped.
There are piles of rubble and dirt parking lots, and
inadequate recreational facilities such as trails. The
objective of the redevelopment proposal is to convert this
shoreline into a major urban amenity similar to Crissy Field.
5)Sierra Club California is opposed unless SB 792 is amended.
First, it is concerned about the ability of DPR to perform its
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essential preservation functions at SRA. Furthermore, it is
concerned SB 792 does not specify who determines the criteria
for the financial feasibility of the City's project for the
purposes of when the Director of DPR agrees to additional
modifications of the park configuration if the modifications
are consistent with the overall financial feasibility of the
project. Third, it cites the effect of the proposed
redevelopment project on birds and other wildlife. A proposed
bridge that will connect Candlestick Park with the Hunters
Point property that will cross Yosemite Slough concerns this
organization because of the potential effect on a wetlands
restoration project by the California State Parks Foundation.
Finally, Sierra Club California wants to ensure that all lands
that are proposed for exchange with the SRA have been fully
remediated.
6)A number of community groups from Bayview Hunters Point are
opposed to SB 792, saying the exchange of state park land for
private condominium development disproportionately impacts the
African American community, resulting in "the State of
California engaging in environmental racism." They further
point out that state park land will make up only five percent
of the redevelopment area for a "neighborhood with the highest
concentration of families and children in all of San
Francisco, and which has historically been denied equal access
to clean open space."
7)PROPOSED AMENDMENTS : The Committee proposes various technical
amendments to clarify the execution of SB 792. The Committee
also proposes the following amendments to avoid conflict with
existing provisions of the Community Redevelopment Law (Part 1
(commencing with Section 33000) of Division 24 of the Health
and Safety Code):
On page 26, strike out line 19 and insert:
the commission approves a later date by which the agency shall
transfer the lands to the city. The city shall hold
On page 26, line 24 after the period insert:
This subdivision shall not affect the rights and obligations of
the agency pursuant to the Community Redevelopment Law.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
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African American Democratic Club
African American Revitalization Consortium
Alice Griffith Tenants Association
Bay Area Council
Bayview Business Resource Center
Bayview Merchants' Association
Bayview Hunters Point Multipurpose Senior Services, Inc.
Center for Creative Land Recycling
City and County of San Francisco
Hunters Point Shipyard Citizens Advisory Committee
Lennar Urban
Mayor Gavin Newsom, City of San Francisco
San Francisco Branch NAACP
San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District
San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council
San Francisco Chamber of Commerce
San Francisco District Attorney
San Francisco Housing Action Coalition
San Francisco Labor Council
San Francisco Organizing Project
San Francisco Women's Political Committee
Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, District 10, City and County of San
Francisco
Tidescenter
Individual letters (176)
Opposition
Arc Ecology (unless amended)
Center for Third World Organizing
Movement Generation
People Organized to Demand Environmental & Ecological Rights
(PODER)
People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER)
San Francisco Green Party
Sierra Club CA (unless amended)
St. Peters Housing Committee
The Chinese Progressive Association
The San Francisco Bayview Newspaper
Our City
Individual letters (15)
Analysis Prepared by : Jennifer R. Klein / L. GOV. / (916)
319-3958