(1) Existing law establishes the Natural Resources Agency, composed of departments, boards, conservancies, and commissions responsible for the restoration, protection, and management of the state's natural and cultural resources. Existing law establishes within the Natural Resources Agency the Sixth District Agricultural Association, known as Exposition Park. Existing law establishes the Department of General Services in the Government Operations Agency for purposes of providing centralized services of state government, including, among other things, planning, acquiring, constructing, and maintaining state buildings and property. This bill would authorize the Natural Resources Agency to enter into a noncompetitive grant with a nonprofit organization, as specified. The bill would authorize the nonprofit organization, in consultation with the Natural Resources Agency and the Department of General Services, to plan, construct, and maintain a memorial to the victims and survivors of the Holocaust at Exposition Park, as specified. The bill would require the Department of General Services, in consultation with the nonprofit organization and the agency, to, among other things, review the preliminary design plans to identify potential maintenance concerns. The bill would require the nonprofit organization, in consultation with Exposition Park and with the approval of the Natural Resources Agency and the Department of General Services, to prepare certain items, including an agreement for the long-term maintenance and security of the memorial. (2) Existing law sets forth a comprehensive plan for the conservation of the waters of the San Francisco Bay and the development of its shoreline and delegates to the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission authority to implement the plan. Existing law establishes in the State Treasury a Bay Fill Clean-Up and Abatement Fund and requires moneys from specified sources to be paid into the fund, including all moneys collected civilly under specified proceedings. Existing law makes the moneys in the fund available for expenditure by the commission or the executive director, when appropriated by the Legislature, for specified purposes, including resource enhancement and remedial cleanup or abatement actions. This bill would additionally make the moneys in the fund available for enforcement activities and for technology, services, programs, and personnel that directly support those enforcement activities or that directly support any of the other specified purposes of the fund. (3) Existing law provides for the regulation of underground storage tanks, as defined, by the State Water Resources Control Board. Existing law, until January 1, 2036, requires the board to conduct a loan and grant program to assist small businesses in upgrading, replacing, or removing project tanks to comply with underground storage tank and gasoline vapor control requirements. Existing law makes funds available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, from the Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Financing Account available for the loan and grant program. Existing law defines "project tanks" to mean tanks that would be upgraded, replaced, or removed with loan or grant funds, including tanks that are upgraded to comply with the Enhanced Vapor Recovery Phase II regulations. Existing law authorizes grant funds to be used to reimburse up to 100% of costs incurred to comply with the Enhanced Vapor Recovery Phase II regulations, if the grant application was received by April 1, 2009. This bill would instead define "project tanks" to mean tanks that would be upgraded, replaced, or removed with loan or grant funds to comply with underground storage tank and gasoline vapor control requirements, including tanks that are required to be permanently closed on or before December 31, 2025. The bill would eliminate the authority to use the grant funds to reimburse costs incurred to comply with the Enhanced Vapor Recovery Phase II regulations. The bill would authorize loan and grant funds to be used to reimburse up to 100% of the costs to remove or replace a project tank if the board receives the loan application before June 30, 2025, and the costs are incurred between specified dates. (4) The Professional Foresters Law provides for the regulation of persons who practice the profession of forestry and whose activities have an impact upon the ecology of forested landscapes and the quality of the forest environment. Under existing law, fees received pursuant to the Professional Foresters Law are required to be deposited in the Professional Forester Registration Fund, to be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the administration of these provisions. Existing law authorizes, in specified circumstances, the Director of Finance to authorize an emergency expenditure from the fund in an amount determined by the director, as provided. Existing law requires the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to establish by regulation the amount of fees, for, among other things, application for registry and a penalty fee for failure to apply for a renewal, within specified ranges and based on a determination by the state board of the amount of revenues reasonably necessary to carry out the regulation of these provisions. This bill would increase the specified ranges for the above-described fees. By increasing the range for these specified fees that are deposited into a fund that is continuously appropriated under specified circumstances, this bill would make an appropriation. (5) Existing law establishes in the Natural Resources Agency the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL-FIRE) under the control of an executive officer known as the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection. Existing law requires CAL-FIRE, in accordance with a plan approved by the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, to, among other things, provide fire prevention and firefighting implements, organize crews and patrols, and employ people to effect the plan. This bill would require CAL-FIRE, subject to an appropriation of funds, to begin to employ sufficient permanent firefighting personnel to increase the base period hand crew staffing levels. Under the bill, CAL-FIRE would maintain the ability to hire seasonal, temporary firefighters as needed to allow for surge hiring capacity for confronting emergency fire conditions or other personnel shortages as determined by the director. (6) Existing law requires the annual Budget Bill submitted by the Governor to include an amount not to exceed $3,400,000 to be appropriated by the Legislature from the Highway Users Tax Account in the Transportation Tax Fund to the State Parks and Recreation Fund. Existing law requires those funds to be appropriated to the Department of Parks and Recreation for state park highway purposes. This bill would instead require the Governor's annual Budget Bill to include an amount not to exceed $12,000,000 for those purposes. (7) Existing law establishes the Department of Water Resources within the Natural Resources Agency and vests it with various powers and duties related to water, including, among other things, the authority to acquire by eminent domain any property necessary for state water and dam purposes and to award and enter into construction contracts that require expenditures in excess of funds presently available, as specified. Existing law requires workers employed on public works to be paid not less than the general prevailing rate of per diem wages for work of a similar character in the locality that the public work is performed, as prescribed, unless an exception applies. This bill would authorize the Department of Water Resources to enter into contracts for habitat restoration projects, as specified. The bill would provide that these contracts may include the physical restoration of any state or privately owned real property, and any incidental or necessary services to accomplish that purpose. The bill would require the Department of Water Resources to prepare a request for proposals, as specified, for solicitations by the department for these contracts. The bill would require contracts entered into by the Department of Water Resources to provide compensation, including through progress payments, based upon measurable environmental outcomes and performance targets. The bill would require contracts entered into by the Department of Water Resources that include work considered to be a public work, as defined, to be subject to the public works provisions of the Labor Code. The bill would require the Department of Water Resources to classify the nature of the services to be provided when establishing the terms and conditions applicable for each contracted-for project. (8) Existing law requires the Department of Water Resources, in conjunction with other public agencies, to conduct an investigation of the state's groundwater basins and to report its findings to the Governor and the Legislature in years ending in 5 and 0. This bill would require the Department of Water Resources to report its findings, as described above, to the Governor and the Legislature only in years ending in 5. (9) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. Under existing law, the Transit-Oriented Development Implementation Program is administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development to provide local assistance to developers for the purpose of developing higher density uses within close proximity to transit stations as provided. Existing law, establishes the Transit-Oriented Development Implementation Fund and, to the extent funds are available, requires the department to make loans for the development and construction of housing development projects within close proximity to a transit station that meet specified criteria. This bill would authorize a project, to the extent that the project is required to mitigate transportation impacts under CEQA, to satisfy the mitigation requirement by electing to contribute an amount of money, at a price per vehicle mile traveled, as determined by the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation, to the Transit-Oriented Development Implementation Fund for the purposes of the Transit-Oriented Development Implementation Program, as provided. The bill would require the office, on or before July 1, 2029, and at least once every 3 years thereafter, to update the price per vehicle mile traveled based on specified factors. The bill would require, upon appropriation by the Legislature, the contributions to be available to the department to fund developments located in the same region, as defined, with preference given to specified projects. The bill would require the department to, for each award, confirm the estimated reduction in vehicle miles traveled, as provided, and would require the department to post specified information on its internet website.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms in regulating those emissions. The implementing regulations adopted by the state board provide for the direct allocation of greenhouse gas allowances to electrical corporations and gas corporations pursuant to a market-based compliance mechanism. Existing law, except as provided, requires revenues received by an electrical corporation as a result of the direct allocation of greenhouse gas allowances to electrical distribution utilities to be credited directly to residential, small business, and emissions-intensive trade-exposed retail customers of the electrical corporation, commonly known as the electric California Climate Credit. Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory jurisdiction over public utilities, including electrical corporations and gas corporations. Under its regulatory authority, the commission requires, except as provided, revenues received by a gas corporation as a result of the direct allowance of greenhouse gas allowances to natural gas suppliers to be credited directly to residential customers of the gas corporation, commonly known as the natural gas California Climate Credit. This bill would require that the electric California Climate Credit be provided to the residential and small business retail customers of electrical corporations on the bills of those customers for the months of August and September of each year, and to the emissions-intensive trade-exposed retail customers of electrical corporations on the bills of those customers for the month of August of each year, unless otherwise directed by the commission, as specified. The bill would require that the natural gas California Climate Credit be provided to residential customers on the bills of those customers for the month of February of each year unless otherwise directed by the commission, as specified. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or an order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because the above provisions would be part of the act and a violation of a commission action implementing this bill's requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA exempts from its requirements various projects, including, but not limited to, housing projects that meet certain requirements. This bill would exempt from the requirements of CEQA a housing development project, as defined, that meets certain conditions relating to, for example, size, density, and location, including specific requirements for any housing on the project site located within 500 feet of a freeway. The bill would require a local government, as a condition of approval for the development, to require the development proponent to complete a specified environmental assessment regarding hazardous substance releases. If a recognized environmental condition is found, the bill would require the development proponent to complete a preliminary endangerment assessment and specified mitigation based on that assessment. Because a lead agency would be required to determine whether a housing development project qualifies for this exemption, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
