Bill Text: CA AB3020 | 2017-2018 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: California Environmental Quality Act: exemption.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-04-23 - In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author. [AB3020 Detail]
Download: California-2017-AB3020-Amended.html
Amended
IN
Assembly
March 22, 2018 |
Assembly Bill | No. 3020 |
Introduced by Assembly Member Flora |
February 16, 2018 |
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
The Wildland Fire Protection and Resources Management Act of 1978 requires the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to conduct an experimental program of wildland resources management through prescribed burning and other methods in 2 areas of wildlands, as provided. Existing law establishes definitions to govern the provisions of the act.
This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to the provisions of law relating to the definitions.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee:Bill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 21080 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read:21080.
(a) Except as otherwise provided in this division, this division shall apply to discretionary projects proposed to be carried out or approved by public agencies, including, but not limited to, the enactment and amendment of zoning ordinances, the issuance of zoning variances, the issuance of conditional use permits, and the approval of tentative subdivision maps unless the project is exempt from this division.SEC. 2.
No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because a local agency or school district has the authority to levy service charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the program or level of service mandated by this act, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code.Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the following definitions govern the construction of this chapter:
(a)“Hazardous fuel reduction” means the application of practices to wild lands, the primary impact of which to the vegetation is generally limited to the reduction of surface and ladder wild land fuels. These practices include, but are not limited to, prescribed fire, piling by machine or by hand in preparation for burning, thinning, pruning, or grazing. Treatments that reduce crown densities shall be prescribed only for the purpose of impacting fire behavior, and if it can be reasonably concluded, based on the proposed treatment, that the likelihood for the formation of crown fires is reduced.
(b)“Nonprofit organization” means
a California corporation organized pursuant to Section 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) of the federal Internal Revenue Code.
(c)“Person” means a natural person, firm, association, partnership, business trust, corporation, limited liability company, company, nonprofit organization, or a combination of those, or a public agency other
than an agency of the federal government.
(d)“Prescribed burn crew” means personnel and firefighting equipment of the department that are prepared to contain fire set in a prescribed burning operation and to suppress any fire that escapes during a prescribed burning operation.
(e)“Prescribed burning” or “prescribed burning operation” means the planned application and confinement of fire to wild land fuels on lands selected in advance of that application to achieve any of the following objectives:
(1)Prevention of high-intensity wild land fires through reduction of the volume and continuity of wild land fuels.
(2)Watershed management.
(3)Range improvement.
(4)Vegetation management.
(5)Forest improvement.
(6)Wildlife habitat improvement.
(7)Air quality maintenance.
(f)“Wild land” means land that is classified as a state responsibility area pursuant to Article 3 (commencing with Section 4125) of Chapter 1 and includes land having a flammable plant cover. “Wild land” also means land not classified as a state responsibility area where the geographic location of these lands and
accumulation of wild land fuel is such that a wild land fire occurring on these lands would pose a threat to a state responsibility area.
(g)“Wild land fire” means
an uncontrolled fire burning on wild land.
(h)“Wild land fuel” means timber, brush, grass, or other flammable vegetation, living or dead, standing or down.