BILL NUMBER: AB 1016	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Achadjian

                        FEBRUARY 18, 2011

   An act to add Sections 1102.18 and 3482.7 to the Civil Code,
relating to nuisance.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1016, as introduced, Achadjian. Nuisance: landfill activities.
    (1) Existing law defines a nuisance, in part, as anything that is
injurious to health, or is indecent or offensive to the senses, or
an obstruction to the free use of property, so as to interfere with
the comfortable enjoyment of life or property. Existing law
authorizes various remedies for nuisances, including remedies to
effect abatement and damages. Existing law provides, among other
things, that no agricultural activity, operation, or facility, or
appurtenances thereof, as defined, in operation for more than 3
years, and conducted or maintained for commercial purposes in a
manner consistent with proper and accepted customs and standards,
shall become a nuisance due to any changed condition in the locality
if it was not a nuisance at the time it began, except as specified.
   This bill would provide that no landfill activity, operation, or
facility, or appurtenances thereof, as defined, in operation for more
than 3 years, and conducted or maintained for commercial purposes in
a manner consistent with proper and accepted customs and standards,
shall become a nuisance due to any changed condition in the locality
if it was not a nuisance at the time it began, except as specified.
   (2) Existing law requires certain disclosures to be provided to
the purchaser of specified residential real property consisting of
not less than one or more than four dwelling units upon transfer of
that property. Among other things, the seller of residential real
property who has actual knowledge that the property is adjacent to,
or zoned to allow, an industrial use, or affected by a nuisance
created by that use, shall give written notice of that knowledge as
soon as practicable before transfer of title.
   This bill would require the seller of any residential dwelling
consisting of not less than one or more than four dwelling units that
is in close proximity to a landfill activity, operation, or
facility, or appurtenances thereof, to give written notice to the
purchaser of that real property before transfer of title that the
property is subject to the provisions described in (1) above. The
bill would require the purchaser to sign the required disclosure.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 1102.18 is added to the Civil Code, to read:
   1102.18.  The seller of any residential dwelling that is in close
proximity to a landfill activity, operation, or facility, or
appurtenances thereof, shall give written notice to the purchaser of
that real property before transfer of title that the property is
subject to Section 3482.7. The purchaser shall sign the disclosure
required pursuant to this section.
  SEC. 2.  Section 3482.7 is added to the Civil Code, to read:
   3482.7.  (a) No landfill activity, operation, or facility, or
appurtenances thereof, conducted or maintained for commercial
purposes, and in a manner consistent with proper and accepted customs
and standards, as established and followed by similar landfill
operations in the same locality, shall become a nuisance, public or
private, due to any changed condition in or about the locality, after
it has been in operation for more than three years, if it was not a
nuisance at the time it began.
   (b) Subdivision (a) shall not apply if the landfill activity,
operation, or facility, or appurtenances thereof, obstructs the free
passage or use, in the customary manner, of any navigable lake,
river, bay, stream, canal, or basin, or any public park, square,
street, or highway.
   (c) Subdivision (a) shall not invalidate any provision contained
in the Health and Safety Code, Fish and Game Code, Food and
Agricultural Code, or Division 7 (commencing with Section 13000) of
the Water Code, if the landfill activity, operation, or facility, or
appurtenances thereof, constitutes a nuisance, public or private, as
specifically defined or described in any of those provisions.
   (d) This section shall prevail over any contrary provision of an
ordinance or regulation of a city, county, city and county, or other
political subdivision of the state. However, nothing in this section
shall preclude a city, county, city and county, or other political
subdivision of this state, acting within its constitutional or
statutory authority and not in conflict with other provisions of
state law, from adopting an ordinance that allows notification to a
prospective homeowner that the dwelling is in close proximity to a
landfill activity, operation, or facility, or appurtenances thereof,
and is subject to the provisions of this section consistent with
Section 1102.6a.
   (e) For purposes of this section, the term "landfill activity,
operation, or facility, or appurtenances thereof" shall include, but
not be limited to, a waste management unit at which waste is
discharged in or on land for disposal. "Landfill activity, operation,
or facility, or appurtenances thereof" does not include any surface
impoundment, waste pile, land treatment unit, injection well, or soil
amendment.