Bill Text: CA SB170 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Agricultural lands: cancellation of Williamson Act

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-02-01 - Returned to Secretary of Senate pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [SB170 Detail]

Download: California-2009-SB170-Amended.html

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BILL NUMBER: SB 170	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  APRIL 13, 2009
	AMENDED IN SENATE  MARCH 25, 2009

INTRODUCED BY   Senator Florez

                        FEBRUARY 14, 2009

   An act to add Section 51282.15 to the Government Code, relating to
agricultural lands.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 170, as amended, Florez. Agricultural lands: cancellation of
Williamson Act contracts.
   Existing law authorizes a landowner to petition a county board or
supervisors or a city council for cancellation of any Williamson Act
contract for all or part of the subject land. The board or council is
authorized to grant tentative approval for cancellation of a
contract if it finds that cancellation is in the public interest. For
these purposes, the board or council is required to find that other
public concerns substantially outweigh the objectives of the
Williamson Act and that either there is no proximate noncontracted
land that is both available and suitable for the use to which it is
proposed the contracted land be put, or that development of the
contracted land would provide more contiguous patterns of urban
development than development of proximate noncontracted land.
   This bill would establish a rebuttable presumption that where a
federally recognized Indian tribe has petitioned for a contract
cancellation that tribal cultural centers, infrastructure, and
housing are  alterative   alternative  uses
that are public concerns that substantially outweigh the objectives
of the act and that for tribal cultural centers, infrastructure, and
housing, land contiguous to existing tribal land would provide more
contiguous patterns of urban development than development of
proximate noncontracted land.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 51282.15 is added to the Government Code, to
read:
   51282.15.  Where a federally recognized Indian tribe has
petitioned for a contract cancellation pursuant to this article, a
rebuttable presumption exists that tribal cultural centers,
infrastructure, and housing are  alterative  
alternative  uses that are public concerns that substantially
outweigh the objectives of this chapter for the finding required
pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (c) of Section 51282, and
that for tribal cultural centers, infrastructure, and housing, land
contiguous to an existing Indian Reservation, as defined by Section
151.2 of Title 25 of the Code of Federal Regulations, would provide
more contiguous patterns of urban development than development of
proximate noncontracted land for the finding required pursuant to
paragraph (2) of subdivision (c) of Section 51282.  At the time
of the cancellation, when the presumption is operative, the tribe
shall agree to execute a negative easement not to use the property
for purposes other than a cultural center, housing, or
infrastructure, for the remainder of the nonrenewal period of the
contract, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior.
 This section shall not be interpreted to narrow the
circumstances under which a board or council may approve a petition
pursuant to Section 51282 where other grounds for approval exist if
one or both of the presumptions do not apply or have been rebutted.