BILL ANALYSIS
SB 792
Page 1
REPLACE - 09/08/09 Changes per consultant.
SENATE THIRD READING
SB 792 (Leno)
As Amended September 4, 2009
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :34-2
LOCAL GOVERNMENT 4-0 APPROPRIATIONS 9-2
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|Ayes:|Caballero, Knight, |Ayes:|De Leon, Conway, Hall, |
| |Arambula, | |Harkey, Miller, Solorio, |
| |De La Torre | |Audra Strickland, |
| | | |Torlakson, Hill |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | |Nays:|Ammiano, Charles Calderon |
| | | | |
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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.
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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, provided the state receives consideration
having a value that equals or exceeds the greater of either the fair
market value of the state property conveyed or $50,000,000; the
exchange provides an overall benefit to the state recreation area
and will further the objective of preserving the park's natural,
scenic, cultural, and ecological values for present and future
generations; and the exchange meets certain specified conditions,
including that approximately 20% of the total consideration value be
in the form of operation and maintenance funding. The Director of
DPR is required to publish all proposed findings to the agreement to
convey to SFRDA or the City an interest in the state property so
removed in the California Regulatory Notice Register (CRNR) no less
than 30 days prior to making final findings, and is required to
publish the final findings in CRNR.
5)Establishes the procedural requirements applicable to the park land
exchange.
6)Allows certain requirements necessary for the issuance of a San
Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) permit
to be deemed satisfied if the SFRDA submits specified paperwork.
7)Includes legislative findings that the land conveyed to the city
pursuant to the 1958 Act, Chapter 2 of the Statutes of 1958 of the
First Extraordinary Session, have been cut off from water access,
are relatively small in area, have been filled and reclaimed as part
of a highly beneficial program of harbor development, and are no
longer useful for public trust purposes; the lands conveyed pursuant
to the 1958 Act are free from the public trust; the redevelopment
project will further the important statewide interests in
redevelopment, the elimination of blight, and the provision of
affordable housing opportunities; and DPR is required to give strong
consideration to keeping open SRA any time DPR undertakes the
process of identifying state parks or state recreation areas for
closure. 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.
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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 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 SFRDA, 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.
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FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee:
1)Exchange of state assets-land presently within the existing
boundaries of the SRA and potentially worth millions of dollars-for
other land or compensation equal to the land's fair market value.
2)Potential sales and income tax revenue, possibly in the millions of
dollars, to the extent this bill, and the project it facilitates,
results in greater economic activity in California than would
otherwise occur.
COMMENTS : 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.
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 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
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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.
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.
The City plans to revitalize the closed Hunters Point Naval Shipyard
and Candlestick Point areas within the City. In June 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 154 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
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park lands within the project area. The acreage of the park would
expand to 80 acres. 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 in the shipyard portions 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.
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."
Analysis Prepared by : Jennifer R. Klein / L. GOV. / (916) 319-3958
FN: 0002976