Bill Text: CA AB2333 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended

California Assembly Bill 2333 (Prior Session Legislation)

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

Bill Title: State highways: airspace leases: report.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2024-08-15 - In committee: Held under submission. [AB2333 Detail]

Download: California-2023-AB2333-Amended.html

Amended IN Assembly March 11, 2024

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 2333

Introduced by Assembly Member Santiago

February 12, 2024

An act to amend Section ~~1800~~ 104.12 of the Streets and Highways Code, relating to ~~streets and~~ state highways.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 2333, as amended, Santiago. ~~City streets and highways.~~ State highways: airspace leases: report.

Existing law vests the Department of Transportation with full possession and control of the state highway system, including associated property. Existing law authorizes the department to lease to public agencies or private entities areas above or below state highways, subject to any reservations, restrictions, and conditions that the department deems necessary to ensure adequate protection to the safety and the adequacy of highway facilities and to abutting or adjacent land uses.
This bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2026, and annually thereafter, to submit a report to the Assembly and Senate Committees on Transportation with specified information on every airspace site leased by the department, including information about site inspections and each site’s proximity to sensitive infrastructure.
Existing law authorizes the legislative body of a city to do any and all things necessary to lay out, acquire, and construct a section or portion of a street or highway within its jurisdiction as a freeway and to make an existing street or highway a freeway.
~~This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to this provision.~~

Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: NOYES Local Program: NO

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Section 104.12 of the Streets and Highways Code is amended to read:

104.12.

(a) (1) The department may lease to public agencies or private entities for any term not to exceed 99 years the use of areas above or below state highways, subject to any reservations, restrictions, and conditions that it deems necessary to ensure adequate protection to the safety and the adequacy of highway facilities and to abutting or adjacent land uses. Authorized emergency vehicles, as defined in Section 165 of the Vehicle Code, ~~which~~ that are on active duty and are not merely being ~~stored,~~ stored shall be given preference in the use of these areas, and no payment of consideration shall be required for this use of the areas by these vehicles. ~~Prior to~~ Before entering into any lease, the department shall determine that the proposed use is not in conflict with the zoning regulations of the local government concerned. The leases shall be made in accordance with procedures to be prescribed by the commission, except that, in the case of leases with private entities, the leases shall only be made after competitive bidding unless the commission finds, by unanimous vote, that in certain cases competitive bidding would not be in the best interests of the state. The possibilities of entering into the leases, and the consequent benefits to be derived therefrom, may be considered by the department in designing and constructing the highways.

~~Revenues~~

(2) Revenues from the leases shall be deposited in the State Highway Account. If leased property was provided to the department for state highway purposes through donation or at less than fair market value, the lease revenues shall be shared with the donor or seller if so provided by contract when the property was acquired. If the donor or seller was a local agency ~~which~~ that no longer exists at the time the department enters into the lease, the local agency’s share of lease revenues shall be paid to the county or counties within which the local agency was situated.

(b) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), in any case where sufficient land or airspace exists within the right-of-way of any highway, constructed in whole or in part with federal-aid highway funds, to accommodate needed passenger, commuter, or high-speed rail, magnetic levitation systems, and highway and nonhighway public mass transit facilities, the department may make the land or airspace available, with or without charge, to a public entity for those purposes, subject to any reservations, restrictions, or conditions that it determines necessary to ensure adequate protection to the safety and adequacy of highway facilities and to abutting or adjacent land uses.

(c) The department shall consider future lease potential of areas above or below state highway projects when planning new state highway projects. This consideration shall be accomplished by intradepartment consultation between offices concerned with project development and airspace lease development.

(d) On or before January 1, 2026, and annually thereafter, the department shall submit a report to the Assembly Committee on Transportation and the Senate Committee on Transportation that includes all of the following information on every airspace site leased by the department:
(1) Department district number.
(2) Parcel number.
(3) Property number.
(4) Route.
(5) Street number.
(6) Street name.
(7) Tenant.
(8) Start tenancy date.
(9) End tenancy date.
(10) Square footage leased.
(11) Use type.
(12) Last inspection date.
(13) Whether the site was in compliance with the lease’s obligations based on the last inspection.
(14) The type of action taken if the site is not in compliance with the lease’s obligations.
(15) Whether the site is under, or near, sensitive infrastructure.
(16) The site’s proximity to sensitive infrastructure.

SECTION 1.Section 1800 of the Streets and Highways Code is amended to read:
1800.
The legislative body of a city may do any and all things necessary to lay out, acquire, and construct a section or portion of a street or highway within its jurisdiction as a freeway and to make an existing street or highway a freeway.