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AB-2598 Tidelands and submerged lands: sea level action plan.(2009-2010)

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Corrected  July 19, 2010
Amended  IN  Senate  July 15, 2010
Amended  IN  Senate  June 16, 2010
Amended  IN  Assembly  April 15, 2010
Amended  IN  Assembly  April 05, 2010

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2009–2010 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 2598

Introduced  by  Assembly Member Brownley

February 19, 2010

An act to add Section 6315 to the Public Resources Code, relating to tidelands and submerged lands.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 2598, as amended, 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 July 1, 2011 2012, and submit the plan to the Natural Resources Agency, the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, and the State Lands Commission. 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 provide that require the State Lands Commission shall 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   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) Notwithstanding any other law, a 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, 2011 2012, 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 and any subsequent updates to that report, 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 beach replenishment, 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 Natural Resources Agency, the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research or its successor agency, and the State Lands Commission.
(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.

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