BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �






           SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE       BILL NO: acr 46
          SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN              AUTHOR:  Butler
                                                         VERSION: 4/6/11
          Analysis by:  Art Bauer                        FISCAL:  yes
          Hearing date:  June 14, 2011

          SUBJECT:

          Encroachment permit for Venice Japanese American Memorial Marker

          DESCRIPTION:

          This measure requests the Department of Transportation 
          (Caltrans) to issue an encroachment permit permitting the 
          erection on State Route (SR) 1 in the City of Los Angeles at the 
          Intersection of Venice and Lincoln Boulevards a monument to 
          memorialize the internment of Americans of Japanese descent 
          during World War II. 

          ANALYSIS:

          Existing law charges Caltrans with the responsibility of 
          maintaining and operating state highways, including monuments 
          and plaques placed in the highway right-of-way.  An encroachment 
          permit allows someone other than Caltrans to conduct activity, 
          including installing permitted structures, in the highway 
          right-of-way.  Caltrans issues encroachment permits for the 
          installation of billboards, mailboxes, fences, monuments, and 
          other such structures.

          Caltrans encroachment guidelines authorize "no-fee" permits to 
          be issued for the placement of memorial plaques or markers 
          within the right-of-way for commemorating persons, events, or 
          historical places, provided a request for the plaques is made by 
          the California Legislature through a concurrent resolution.

           This resolution  requests Caltrans to issue an encroachment 
          permit permitting the erection on 
          SR 1 in the City of Los Angeles at the Intersection of Venice 
          and Lincoln Boulevards a monument to memorialize the internment 
          of Americans of Japanese descent during World War II. 
                          
          COMMENTS:

              1.   Purpose  .  The purpose of this resolution is to request 
               Caltrans to issue an encroachment permit to allow the 




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               installation of a memorial monument on SR 1 in the City of 
               Los Angeles at the Intersection of Venice and Lincoln 
               memorializing the internment of Americans of Japanese 
               descent during World War II. 

              2.   Background  .  On April 25, 1942, hundreds of Japanese 
               Americans reported to 933 Venice Boulevard, near the 
               intersection of Lincoln and Venice Boulevard, in response 
               to Civilian Exclusion Order No. 7, which ordered the 
               evacuation of people of Japanese ancestry, "alien and 
               non-alien" alike, out of the Malibu, Santa Monica, West Los 
               Angeles, and Venice areas.  Over the next three days, 
               approximately 3,000 Japanese Americans lined up at this 
               intersection for the day-long bus ride to the Manzanar War 
               Relocation Authority in the Owens Valley. 

               The Venice Japanese American Memorial Marker Committee, 
               consisting of educators, newspaper publishers, artists, and 
               former internees, has continued the campaign launched by 
               the Venice Peace and Freedom Party and the Free Venice 
               Beachhead, in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the 
               United States on September 11, 2001, to erect a memorial 
               marker at the northwest corner of Venice and Lincoln 
               Boulevards to commemorate the Japanese American evacuation 
               and internment that itself followed in the aftermath of 
               Japan's attack on the U. S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, 
               Hawaii on December 7, 1941.

          Assembly Votes:
               Floor:    78-0
               Appr: 16-0
               Trans:    14-0

          POSITIONS:  (Communicated to the Committee before noon on 
          Wednesday,
                     June 8, 2011)

               SUPPORT:  Venice Japanese American Memorial Marker 
          Committee (Sponsor)
                         Japanese American Citizens League-Venice-Culver 
          Chapter
                         Japanese American Citizens League-West Los 
          Angeles Chapter
                         Nikkei Student Union University of California Los 
          Angeles
                         Social and Public Art Resource Center




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                         Venice Arts Council
                         Venice Community Coalition
          
               OPPOSED:  None received.