BILL ANALYSIS
------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 833|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|1020 N Street, Suite 524 | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
------------------------------------------------------------
THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 833
Author: Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee
Amended: As introduced
Vote: 21
SENATE NATURAL RES. & WATER COMMITTEE : 10-0, 4/28/09
AYES: Pavley, Cogdill, Hollingsworth, Huff, Kehoe, Leno,
Padilla, Simitian, Wiggins, Wolk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Benoit
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
SUBJECT : Natural resources: mining: conservation lands
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This is a Senate Natural Resources and Water
Committee omnibus bill that provides technical cleanup and
clarification to previous legislation regarding mine
reclamation, conservation, protection of Native American
remains, Treasure Island, and mapping issues (see full
description below).
ANALYSIS :
Existing Law
In order to get permission to mine, an owner must file a
reclamation plan, which includes financial resources to
cover the cleanup costs of the mine and the mine operations
CONTINUED
SB 833
Page
2
in case of bankruptcy or other kinds of financial
insolvency. In order to insure consistency across the
state, clarifications on what must be included in the
actual reclamation plan form must be put into statue.
SB 1285 (Corbett), Chapter 711, Statutes of 2008, resulted
in several changes to the appraisal process and the
acquisition of conservation lands, including changing the
definition of acquisition agency and conservation lands and
required a workgroup to develop and adopt appraisal process
standards.
When a county coroner receives notice of a discovery of
Native American human remains, it must inform the Native
American Heritage Commission, which is required to then
attempt to locate the most likely descendents. When the
Commission cannot identify a descendant, the descendants do
not make a recommendation, or the landowner and the
descendants do not agree, the landowner must reinter the
human remains on his/her property in a location that is not
subject to further and future disturbance. To protect this
site, the landowner must do one of several things,
including submitting a form with the county. In order to
insure consistency across state records, specification of
what information is on that document requires statutory
change.
Treasure Island, located in San Francisco, includes lands
that were historically tidelands subject to the public
trust. The tidelands that would become Treasure Island
were transferred to the city in 1933 and 1935. Yerba Buena
Island, also located in San Francisco, was acquired by the
United States Navy in 1898. In 1941, the city leased
Treasure Island to the United States and both Islands
became the Naval Station Treasure Island military base.
The Naval Station was closed in 1997. In 1997, the
Legislature granted authority to the Treasure Island
Development Authority to redevelop the lands once the land
was transferred from the Navy to the city.
As negotiations took place, the state asserted that
Treasure Island, a man-made island built on filled tide and
submerged lands, was comprised of sovereign lands subject
to the public trust for commerce, navigation and fisheries
SB 833
Page
3
upon its transfer out of federal ownership. The federal
government asserted that the nature and extent of the
state's sovereign interest in the property was uncertain.
In order to facilitate the productive reuse of the property
and to clear up this point of contention, the Treasure
Island Public Trust Exchange Act (Chapter 543 of the
Statutes of 2004, as amended) authorized the State Lands
Commission to carry out a land exchange that would place
the trust on portions of Yerba Buena Island and terminate
the trust on portions of Treasure Island.
This 'switch' was necessary because the configuration of
trust and non-trust lands within the property was such that
the purposes of the public trust could not be fully
realized. Certain uplands on Yerba Buena Island of high
value to the public trust were not subject to the public
trust. Likewise, a portion of the trust lands on Treasure
Island had been cut off from access to navigable waters and
were not useful for public trust purposes.
SB 815 (Migden), Chapter 660, Statutes of 2007, authorized
the City and County of San Francisco to lease, sell, or
otherwise transfer all or any portion of certain tidelands
and submerged lands constituting "paper streets" in the
City and County of San Francisco. It also authorized
designated seawall lots as free from the public trust, with
the San Francisco Port Commission authorized to lease the
seawall lots.
This bill:
1. Specifies what information must be on the mine
reclamation form, including the name of the owner of the
mine, the name of the lead agency, and the signature of
the lead agency representative.
2. Amends the section of law that requires the seller of
conservation lands to substantiate his or her tax
benefit with an appraisal. The change in wording will
conform with the common term the Franchise Tax Board
uses for a tax return.
3. Specifies what information the document that must be
SB 833
Page
4
filed by the property owner with the county in order to
protect sites where Native American remains lay. The
form will be titled "Notice of Reinterment of Native
American Remains" and will include a description of the
property, the property owner's name and the property
owner's signature.
4. Makes clarifying changes to the provision of the
Treasure Island Public Trust Exchange Act requiring the
protection of views from public areas on Yerba Buena
Island that will be exchanged into the public trust.
5. Revises the diagram (map) in the Exchange Act depicting
the trust exchange to reflect a change in the location
of the proposed Treasure Island ferry terminal and other
clarifications and corrections to the diagram consistent
with current ownership boundaries and the proposed
development plan for the Island.
6. Makes clarifying changes to the "paper streets"
provision in the statutes.
7. Section 15 of the pertinent statutes contains a place
holder for a map of the designated seawall lots. This
section adds that missing map to the statutes.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
CTW:mw 5/12/09 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: NONE RECEIVED
**** END ****