Bill Text: CA AB2428 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: State highways: property leases.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2016-11-30 - From Senate committee without further action. [AB2428 Detail]
Download: California-2015-AB2428-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 2428 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 1, 2016
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 21, 2016
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 31, 2016
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 7, 2016
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 18, 2016
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Ting
FEBRUARY 19, 2016
An act to amend Section 104.16 of the Streets and Highways Code,
relating to state highways.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2428, as amended, Ting. State highways: property leases.
Existing law provides that the Department of Transportation has
full possession and control of the state highway system, including
associated property. Existing law authorizes the department to lease
certain property, including the area above or below a state highway,
and certain property held for future highway purposes, to public
agencies under specified terms and conditions, including specific
provisions governing leases of airspace and other property in the
City and County of San Francisco for purposes of an emergency shelter
or feeding program, at a lease cost of $1 per month and payment of
an administrative fee not to exceed $500 per year.
This bill would revise the provisions governing leases of
department property in the City and County of San Francisco to also
authorize leases of property for park, recreational, or open-space
purposes, subject to certain additional terms and conditions. These
park, recreational, and open-space leases would be subject to a
requirement for the department to lease property located within a
priority development area, as defined, to the city and county on a
right of first refusal basis and, for up to 10 parcels, at a
specified below market value lease amount, and a requirement for the
lessee to be responsible for all associated nonhighway maintenance
costs. The bill would provide for the lease to authorize the lessee
to subsidize its maintenance costs through a limited revenue
generation model, with any revenues generated above the maintenance
costs to be shared with the state, as specified.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated 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) Chapter 728 of the Statutes of 2008 (SB 375) supports the
goals of the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32)
by requiring each of the state's 18 metropolitan areas to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks. SB 375 calls on
each metropolitan area to develop a sustainable communities strategy
(SCS) to accommodate future population growth and reduce greenhouse
gas emissions.
(b) One of the major components of SB 375 is to coordinate the
regional housing needs allocation process with the regional
transportation process while maintaining local authority over land
use decisions. Thus, local officials are key decisionmakers in how
the provisions of SB 375 are ultimately implemented.
(c) The nine-county Bay Area metropolitan area SCS, Plan Bay Area,
was adopted in 2013 through a cooperative effort of the Metropolitan
Transportation Commission (MTC) and the Association of Bay Area
Governments (ABAG). The Bay Area is expected to grow by 2,000,000
people over the next 25 years.
(d) Plan Bay Area provides a strategy for meeting 80 percent of
the region's future housing needs in priority development areas
(PDAs). These are neighborhoods within walking distance of frequent
transit service, offering a wide variety of housing options, and
featuring amenities such as grocery stores, community centers, open
space, and restaurants.
(e) There is a direct relationship between development planning
for population growth in PDAs and the provision of open space and
other amenities in these areas that will be required to support
projected growth. San Francisco, like most cities, aims to provide
adequate quality open space for the broader public health and quality
of life of its citizens and workforce. As new development occurs, it
serves additional residents and employees, who, in turn, require
new, or expanded and enhanced, open space.
(f) A 2014 San Francisco Citywide Nexus Analysis documents this
direct relationship between projected population growth and the cost
of new open-space infrastructure to support growth. Providing
recreation and open space, such as baseball diamonds, soccer fields,
parks, playgrounds, tennis courts, flower gardens, community gardens,
and greenways, is a capital intensive undertaking, especially in San
Francisco where land availability is low and land prices are high.
(g) To meet the goals of SB 375, more of the future development is
planned to be walkable and bikeable and close to public transit,
jobs, schools, shopping, parks, recreation, and other amenities. Many
of San Francisco's PDAs are located in areas of San Francisco that
both lack open space and are home to most of the city's freeways.
There are many parcels and right-of-ways
rights-of-way beneath and adjacent to these freeways and within
PDAs that could be used for open-space purposes, yet currently the
cost of leasing those lands from the Department of Transportation
(Caltrans) is prohibitively high.
(h) Thus, one strategy for supporting statewide SB 375 goals is to
decrease the cost of providing additional open space by decreasing
the cost of land. An innovative intergovernmental partnership would
engage Caltrans in low-cost leases with San Francisco for areas under
the freeways that overlap with PDAs and San Francisco would, in
turn, take on the cost of building and maintaining much-needed new
open space on those lands to support and accommodate future
population growth and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
(i) San Francisco has already demonstrated the viability of
open-space uses under Caltrans freeways through various completed and
successful projects. In the Mission Bay Area, San Francisco operates
several recreational uses under Interstate 280, including volleyball
and basketball courts, as well as pedestrian walkways. In the SoMa
West area under the Route 101 Central Freeway, San Francisco leased
two Caltrans parcels and built a very popular dog park and skatepark.
The leases for these projects, which San Francisco negotiated
carefully in partnership with Caltrans, could serve as models for a
framework of more financially feasible open-space projects.
(j) With an under-freeway open-space framework in place, San
Francisco could more readily meet its SB 375 goals. If this lower
land cost opportunity was established, the under-freeway open-space
projects could become financially feasible and San Francisco would be
able to localize the decisionmaking process for these new open-space
uses. This would allow San Francisco the flexibility to coordinate
and plan locally and to more comprehensively plan to accommodate
future population growth and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
SEC. 2. Section 104.16 of the Streets and Highways Code is amended
to read:
104.16. (a) (1) Any airspace under a freeway, or real property
acquired for highway purposes, in the City and County of San
Francisco, that is not excess property, may be leased by the
department to the city and county or a political subdivision of the
city and county or a state agency for purposes of an emergency
shelter or feeding program.
(2) Any airspace under or adjacent to a freeway, or other real
property acquired for highway purposes, in the City and County of San
Francisco, which is not excess property and is within a priority
development area, shall be leased on a first right of refusal basis
by the department to the city and county, a political subdivision of
the city and county, or a state agency for park, recreational, or
open-space purposes.
(b) (1) The lease amount for emergency shelter or feeding programs
shall be for one dollar ($1) per month.
(2) For up to 10 parcels, the lease amount for park, recreational,
or open-space purposes shall be 10 percent or less of the average
fair market lease value of the applicable parcel.
(3) With respect to a lease for an emergency shelter or feeding
program or for park, recreational, or open-space purposes, the lease
amount may be paid in advance of the term covered in order to reduce
the administrative costs associated with the payment of the monthly
rental fee. The lease shall require the payment of an administrative
fee not to exceed five hundred dollars ($500) per year, unless the
department determines that a higher administrative fee is necessary,
for the department's cost of administering the lease.
(c) In the case of a lease for park, recreational, or open-space
purposes, the lease shall require the lessee to fund and construct
associated infrastructure, and to accept full responsibility for
liability associated to the uses, except as otherwise provided in the
lease. The lease shall require the lessee to be responsible for all
nonhighway-related maintenance costs associated with those uses,
except as otherwise provided in the lease. The lease shall authorize
the lessee, at its discretion, to subsidize its associated
maintenance costs through generation of revenue under a limited
revenue generation model, such as from retail use located on or
contiguous to the leased property, if any revenues generated that
exceed the associated maintenance costs are shared with the state, at
a rate not less than 50 percent of those excess revenues, with that
amount to be deposited in the State Highway Account.
(d) As used in this section, "priority development area" means
a neighborhood within walking distance of frequent transit
service that offers a wide variety of housing options and that
features various amenities, including grocery stores, community
centers, open space, and restaurants. an area
identified in a sustainable communities strategy developed
pursuant to Section 65080 of the Government Code.
(e) The Legislature finds and declares that the lease of real
property pursuant to this section serves a public purpose.
