State highways: relinquishment: infrastructural barriers.

Existing law vests the Department of Transportation with full possession and control of all state highways. Existing law describes the authorized routes in the state highway system and establishes a process for adoption of a highway on an authorized route by the California Transportation Commission. Existing law also provides for the commission to relinquish to local agencies state highway segments that have been deleted from the state highway system by legislative enactment or have been superseded by relocation, and in certain other cases. This bill would authorize the commission to relinquish a portion of a state highway that constitutes an infrastructural barrier, as defined, to a county or city, if the department and the applicable county or city have entered into an agreement providing for the relinquishment of the portion of the state highway. The bill would prohibit a relinquishment under this provision unless certain conditions are met, including, among others, that the commission determines the relinquishment is in the best interest of the state, the purposes of the relinquishment are restorative economic and social justice, the infrastructural barrier is removed or retrofit in a manner that enhances community connectivity, and the city or county determines that the construction of the infrastructural barrier had a significant impact on a disadvantaged community, as specified.