BILL NUMBER: AB 752 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Brownley
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
An act to add Section 6315 to the Public Resources Code, relating
to tidelands and submerged lands.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 752, as introduced, Brownley. Tidelands and submerged lands:
sea level action plan.
Existing law grants to various local entities the right, title,
and interest of the State of California in and to certain tidelands
and submerged lands in trust generally for purposes of commerce,
navigation, and fisheries, and for other public trust purposes.
This bill would require each local trustee of granted public trust
lands, as defined, to give management priority to, and take all
reasonable actions that are necessary for, the preparation of a sea
level action plan for all of its legislatively granted public trust
lands. The bill would require a local trustee to prepare the plan by
January 1, 2013, and submit the plan to the State Lands Commission
which would make the plan available to the public on its Web site.
The bill would require the plan to include, among other things, an
assessment of the impact of sea level rise on granted public trust
lands, an estimate of the financial cost of this impact, and
strategies to prevent or mitigate damage to development and
infrastructure and to protect and enhance habitat.
This bill would require the State Lands Commission to exempt a
local trustee of granted public trust lands from the requirement to
prepare a sea level action plan or grant a deadline extension if the
revenues derived from its granted public trust lands and assets or
funding to it from sources such as the Ocean Protection Council are
not sufficient to pay for the cost of developing the plan.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) Upon admission to the United States, and as incident of its
sovereignty, the State of California received title to the tidelands,
submerged lands, and beds of navigable waterways within its borders
to be held subject to the public trust doctrine for statewide public
purposes, including commerce, navigation, fisheries, preservation of
lands in their natural state, and other recognized public trust uses.
(b) The state has made grants of public trust lands to over 80
local public entities, each of which manages the state's public trust
lands as trustee pursuant to the public trust doctrine, legislative
grants, the California Constitution, and other laws governing the
trust and the trustee's fiduciary responsibilities.
(c) A local trustee of granted public trust lands is charged with
managing the state's granted public trust lands on behalf of the
state for the benefit of all the people of California.
(d) As part of its fiduciary duty, a local trustee of granted
public trust lands is required to take reasonable steps under the
circumstances to take and keep control of and preserve the trust
property.
(e) The effects of climate change and sea level rise will have
significant implications for the state's economic and social future.
(1) Approximately 80 percent of California's 33 million residents
live within 50 kilometers of the Pacific Ocean.
(2) The coastal economy contributes more than $50 billion annually
to the State of California.
(3) Port activities alone in California generate an estimated $7
billion in state and local tax revenues annually and employ more than
one-half million people in California. Nationwide more than 2
million jobs are connected to California ports.
(4) In 2007, more than 40 percent of the total containerized cargo
entering the United States arrived at California ports, and almost
30 percent of the nation's exports left from California ports.
(5) In 2002, cargo operations shut down at west coast ports for 10
days, and the estimated loss to the national economy was $1 billion
per day.
(f) The use of revenues received from trust lands and trust assets
by a local trustee of granted public trust lands is limited by the
legislative grant, the public trust doctrine, and other laws
governing the trust. An evaluation of the impacts of sea level rise
on granted public trust lands is directly related to the operation
and management of these resources managed on behalf of the state by
local trustees and is, therefore, a purpose consistent with the
public trust for commerce, navigation, and fisheries, and the
applicable legislative grants.
(g) Whereas a local trustee of granted public trust lands holds
and manages its public trust property, including the lands and
revenue derived from that property, as a state asset for the benefit
of the people of California and cannot use the trust corpus for
general municipal purposes or other purposes not consistent with the
public trust doctrine and its legislative grant, and because the
State Lands Commission is provided with a mechanism in this act to
exempt a local trustee that does not have sufficient state funds,
either through the trust or other existing funding mechanisms, to pay
for the cost of developing a sea level action plan, there is no
state-mandated local program that results from the implementation of
this act.
SEC. 2. Section 6315 is added to the Public Resources Code, to
read:
6315. (a) For the purposes of this section, "a local trustee of
granted public trust lands" means a county, city, or district,
including water, sanitary, regional park, port, or harbor district,
or any other local political or corporate subdivision that has been
granted public trust lands through a legislative grant.
(b) A local trustee of granted public trust lands shall give
management priority to, and take all reasonable actions that are
necessary for, the preparation of a sea level action plan pursuant to
this section for all of its legislatively granted public trust
lands.
(c) The plan shall be prepared by July 1, 2013, and in
consideration of, and using relevant information contained in, the
2009 California Climate Adaptation Strategy prepared by the Natural
Resources Agency, the Report on Sea Level Rise Preparedness prepared
by the State Lands Commission, the Sea Level Rise Assessment Report
prepared by the National Academy of Science if the report becomes
available before the plan is due, and any subsequent updates to these
reports, and any other related resource. The plan shall include all
of the following:
(1) An assessment of the impact of sea level rise on granted
public trust lands.
(2) Maps showing the areas that may be affected by sea level rise
in the years 2050 and 2100. These maps shall include the potential
impacts of 100-year storm events. A trustee may rely on appropriate
maps generated by other entities.
(3) An estimate of the financial cost of the impact of sea level
rise on granted public trust lands. The estimate shall consider, but
is not limited to, both the potential cost of repair of damage to and
value of lost use of improvements and land and the anticipated cost
to prevent or mitigate potential damage.
(4) Strategies to prevent or mitigate damage to existing
development and infrastructure, and to protect and enhance
undeveloped, vulnerable shoreline areas containing critical habitat
and opportunities for habitat creation, including wetland
restoration, habitat migration, or the creation of buffer zones on
granted public trust lands. When developing these strategies,
especially along the coastline, a grantee shall consider feasible,
nonengineered measures, such as coastal setback lines and managed
retreat of structures.
(5) Design standards that would avoid or mitigate impacts to new
development and infrastructure.
(6) Implementation measures and timetables.
(d) In preparing a sea level action plan, a local trustee shall
conduct at least one public hearing and consult with its lessees,
local, state, and federal agencies, and other users of the granted
public trust lands.
(e) A copy of the plan shall be submitted to the commission in
hard copy and electronic form. The commission shall make the plan
available to the public on its Internet Web site and, for
informational purposes, send an electronic copy to each member of the
Climate Action Team, the Climate Change Program Manager in the
office of the Secretary for Environmental Protection, and the
Governor's Office of Planning and Research.
(f) The commission may exempt a local trustee of granted public
trust lands from this section or allow a local trustee to submit a
modified sea level action plan if the commission finds either of the
following:
(1) None of the local trustee's public trust lands is subject to
sea level rise by 2100.
(2) The cost to provide the plan substantially outweighs the
benefit the plan would have in preventing the potential economic and
environmental harms associated with sea level rise on the local
trustee's granted public trust lands.
(g) The commission shall exempt a local trustee of granted public
trust lands from this section or grant a deadline extension if the
revenues derived from its granted public trust lands and assets
subject to subdivision (b) of Section 6306 or funding made available
to it from sources such as the Ocean Protection Council are not
sufficient to pay for the cost of developing the plan.
(h) The commission shall consider a local trustee's request for an
exemption pursuant to subdivision (f) or (g) at a properly noticed
commission meeting if the request is made before November 1, 2012.