BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE
Senator Dave Cox, Chair
BILL NO: SB 1039 HEARING: 5/5/10
AUTHOR: Ducheny FISCAL: No
VERSION: 4/28/10 CONSULTANT:
Weinberger
SAN DIEGO UNIFIED PORT DISTRICT'S PLANNING
Background and Existing Law
Tide and submerged lands and other navigable waterways are
held in trust by the state to promote the public's interest
in water-dependent activities such as commerce, navigation,
fisheries, environmental preservation, and recreation. The
Legislature has granted public trust lands to local
governments for management. A grantee must manage trust
lands consistent with its own granting statutes and the
public trust doctrine.
In 1962, the Legislature created the San Diego Unified Port
District and conveyed certain tidelands and submerged
lands, in trust, to the District. The five cities within
the Port District's boundaries appoint the seven-member
board of port commissioners.
The Port District's board must draft a master plan for
harbor and port improvement and for the use of the trust
tidelands and submerged lands. State law requires a
two-thirds vote of the board to adopt the plan. The board
may modify the master plan by a two-thirds vote.
City officials in San Diego and National City want to work
with Port District officials on cooperative infrastructure
and capital projects to address the disproportionate
effects of the Port's maritime activities in their
communities.
Proposed Law
Senate Bill 1039 authorizes the San Diego Unified Port
District's Board of Port Commissioners, in implementing the
District's master plan, to consider the inclusion of
cooperative infrastructure and capital projects that
directly address maritime impacts in the cities that host
SB 1039 -- 4/28/10 -- Page 2
maritime industrial activities and that are consistent with
the public trust doctrine.
SB 1039 contains a legislative declaration endorsing the
San Diego Unified Port District's use of revenues from
maritime industrial activities for cooperative
infrastructure and capital projects.
Comment
Seeking balance . Unlike other port districts, the Port of
San Diego manages maritime and maritime-related activities
across a five-city region. Despite efforts to achieve
regional balance in the positive and negative effects of
Port activities, the Port's industrial maritime activities,
and the associated transportation, health, and quality of
life issues, are concentrated around its two marine
terminals in National City and Barrio Logan in the City of
San Diego. These communities experience increased truck
and rail traffic, reduced air quality from diesel
emissions, increased noise, visual blight, and higher
infrastructure costs. National City has no public access
to or recreational use of waterfront lands and has no
lodging or commercial facilities to serve waterfront
visitors, depriving the City of the transient occupancy and
sales tax revenues generated by those activities. SB 1039
helps to correct this localized inequity by clarifying the
Port's authority to include, in implementing its master
plan, cooperative projects that address the effects of
industrial maritime activities on neighboring communities.
Support and Opposition (4/29/10)
Support : National City.
Opposition : Port of San Diego and Pacific Merchant
Shipping Association.