BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 833|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 833
Author: Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee
Amended: 8/31/09
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
SENATE FLOOR : 36-0, 5/18/09 (Consent)
AYES: Aanestad, Alquist, Ashburn, Benoit, Calderon,
Cogdill, Corbett, Correa, Cox, Denham, DeSaulnier,
Ducheny, Dutton, Hancock, Harman, Hollingsworth, Huff,
Kehoe, Leno, Liu, Lowenthal, Maldonado, Negrete McLeod,
Oropeza, Padilla, Pavley, Runner, Simitian, Steinberg,
Strickland, Walters, Wiggins, Wolk, Wright, Wyland, Yee
NO VOTE RECORDED: Cedillo, Florez, Romero, Vacancy
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 78-0, 9/8/09 - See last page for vote
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 mining,
CONTINUED
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conservation, protection of Native American remains,
Treasure Island, fire protection, and certified port master
plans.
Assembly Amendments add new provisions to the bill to
clarify that a person who owns, leases, operates or
maintains an occupied structure in an area covered with
flammable materials must maintain defensible space of 100
feet from each side, including the front and rear, of the
structure, and corrects a reference in the Coastal
Commission's statute regarding amendments to certified port
master plans.
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
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
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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
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
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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 the information that must be included in a
"Notice of Reclamation Plan Approval," including the
name of the owner of the mine, the name of the lead
agency, and the signature of the lead agency
representative.
2. Makes technical changes to the requirements governing
the submittal of a land appraisal for charitable
contribution purposes.
3. Specifies the information a property owner must record
with a county recorder in order to protect sites of
Native American remains. This information includes a
description of the property, the property owner's name
and the property owner's signature.
4. Specifies the viewshed that must be protected by
limiting building heights on Yerba Buena Island.
5. Revises the diagram in the Treasure Island Public Trust
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.
6. Further specifies the location of "paper streets" in the
City and County of San Francisco to be freed of public
trust restrictions.
7. Adds a diagram to SB 815 (Migden), Chapter 660, Statutes
of 2007, depicting the location of designated seawall
lots the City and County of San Francisco is authorized
to lease free of public trust use restrictions.
8. Clarifies that a person who owns, leases, operates or
maintains an occupied structure in an area covered with
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flammable materials must maintain defensible space of
100 feet from each side, including the front and rear,
of the structure. Adds a definition of "fuel" contained
in existing statute.
9. Corrects a reference in the Coastal Commission's statute
regarding amendments to certified port master plans.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Beall, Bill
Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield,
Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Charles Calderon, Carter,
Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon,
DeVore, Emmerson, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong,
Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick,
Gilmore, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill,
Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Krekorian, Lieu,
Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Miller, Monning,
Nava, Nestande, Niello, Nielsen, John A. Perez, V. Manuel
Perez, Portantino, Ruskin, Salas, Saldana, Silva,
Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Audra Strickland, Swanson,
Torlakson, Torres, Torrico, Tran, Villines, Yamada, Bass
NO VOTE RECORDED: Duvall, Vacancy
JJA:mw 9/9/09 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: NONE RECEIVED
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