22701.
For purposes of this part, the following terms have the following meanings: (a) “Disadvantaged community” means a disadvantaged community identified by the California Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to Section 39711 of the Health and Safety Code.
(b) “Green walls” means all forms of vegetated wall surfaces, including:
(1) Use of a trellis system to hold native vines and climbing plants that are rooted in the ground and grow vertically into the supporting structures
attached to the walls.
(2) Living plant wall systems, vertical gardens, and modular green biowalls that contain plantings rooted in wall modules.
(c) “Green highways” means a section or sections of a highway that is now, or later may be, improved by green walls or plantings in or on at least one of the following portions of the right-of-way:
(1) A shoulder.
(2) A median.
(3) An overpass pillar.
(4) The community side of a sound wall, adjacent to a highway.
(d) “Low-income
communities” are census tracts with median incomes at or below 80 percent of the statewide median income or with median household incomes at or below the threshold designated as low income by the Department of Housing and Community Development’s list of state income limits adopted pursuant to Section 50093 of the Health and Safety Code.
(e) “Plantings” means native lawns, trees, shrubs, flowers, moss, lichen, or other ornamental vegetation requiring reasonable maintenance.
(f) “Reasonable maintenance” means the maintenance required to maintain vegetation in a healthy and attractive condition, including, but
not limited to, watering, fertilizing, spraying, cultivating, pruning, cutting, mowing, replacing, weed control, washing, pest control, disease control, and litter removal. The fact that a plant may need less maintenance as it matures shall not be interpreted to mean that it does not require reasonable maintenance.
(g) “Urban area” means any of the following:
(1) The central portion of a city or a group of contiguous cities with a population of 50,000 or more, together with adjacent densely populated areas having a population density of at least 1,000 persons per square mile.
(2) A central city or cities and surrounding closely settled territory, as defined by the United States Department of Commerce Bureau of the Census in the
Federal Register, Volume 39, Number 85, for Wednesday, May 1, 1974, at pages 15202 and 15203, and as periodically updated.
22702.
(a) (1) The department shall complete a statewide strategic plan, in consultation with the Department of Fish and Wildlife, appropriate nonprofit organizations, cities, counties, other local governments of urban areas, disadvantaged communities, and low-income communities, to work to achieve at least a 10-percent increase of green highways in covered urban areas by 2035, with priority for increasing green highways in disadvantaged and low-income communities. The statewide strategic plan shall only consider plants native to California
while including recommendations for all of the following:(A) State and local policies necessary to achieve the goal of increasing green highways in covered urban areas by at least 10 percent by 2035.
(B) Targets and actions for green highways to be completed at the regional level by 2030 in a manner that is consistent with paragraph (3) of subdivision (a) of Section 4799.10 of the Public Resources Code and that supports the 2035 statewide goal.
(C) Local resources needed for the maintenance and upkeep of green highways and strategies to secure these resources.
(D) Resources and strategies to address threats to green highways, including climate change,
extreme weather, pollution, drought and limited water resource availability, diseases, and pests.
(E) Sustainable green highway expansion within disadvantaged communities and low-income communities.
(F) Measures to reduce or eliminate net loss of any existing green highways.
(2) The statewide strategic plan completed by the department pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be submitted to the Legislature, the Assembly Committee on Transportation, and the Senate Committee on Transportation on or before June 30, 2025.
(b) The statewide strategic plan submitted to the Legislature pursuant to subdivision (a) shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the
Government Code.
(c) Pursuant to Section 10231.5 of the Government Code, this part shall be repealed on June 30, 2029.