Bill Text: CA AB824 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended

California Assembly Bill 824

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

Bill Title: Highway greening: statewide strategic plan.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)

Status: (Engrossed) 2023-09-01 - In committee: Held under submission. [AB824 Detail]

Download: California-2023-AB824-Amended.html

Amended IN Senate June 19, 2023

Amended IN Assembly March 14, 2023

Amended IN Assembly March 13, 2023

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 824

Introduced by Assembly Member Calderon
(Coauthor: Assembly Member Friedman)

February 13, 2023

An act to add and repeal Part 3 (commencing with Section 22700) of Division 15 of the Streets and Highways Code, relating to transportation.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 824, as amended, Calderon. Highway greening: statewide strategic plan.

Existing law establishes the Department of Transportation and vests it with full possession and control of all state highways and all property and rights in property for state highway purposes. Under existing law, the department administers the Clean California Local Grant Program of 2021 to provide funding, upon appropriation, for grants to specified local entities for purposes of beautifying and cleaning up local streets and roads, tribal lands, parks, pathways, transit centers, and other public spaces, and administers the Clean California State Beautification Program of 2021 to provide funding, upon appropriation, for purposes of beautifying and cleaning up state highways.

This bill would enact the Highway Greening Act, which would require the department to complete a statewide strategic plan, as specified, to work to achieve at least a 10% increase of green highways, as defined, in urban areas, disadvantaged communities, and low-income communities by 2035. The bill would require the department to submit the plan to the Legislature and specified committees of the Legislature on or before June 30, 2025.

Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES 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) According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 11 million people in the United States live within approximately 500 feet of a major highway.
(b) Internal combustion engines emit toxic chemicals, including benzene, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, ethylbenzene, and 1,3-butadiene.
(c) According the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the transportation sector is responsible for 45 percent of nitrogen dioxide emissions in the United States.
(d) Research indicates that roadways generally influence air quality within about 500 to 600 feet downwind from the vicinity of heavily traveled roadways.
(e) The State Air Resources Board found that having communities adjacent to congested roadways leads to a number of demonstrated health impacts, such as respiratory illnesses, a higher likelihood of cancer development, and premature death.
(f) Given the vital role our highways serve, it is imperative that California uses all methods to mitigate the impact on air quality from harmful emissions, especially for our disadvantaged and low-income communities.

SECTION 1.SEC. 2.

Part 3 (commencing with Section 22700) is added to Division 15 of the Streets and Highways Code, to read:

PART 3. Highway Greening

22700.

This part shall be known, and may be ~~cited~~ cited, as the Highway Greening Act.

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~~ walls, plantings, or hardscaped solid barriers 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 vegetation requiring reasonable maintenance.

(f) “Hardscaped solid barriers” means sound barrier walls or other solid structures made from nonliving material designed to mitigate sound or air pollution to adjacent communities from the highway and that include visually appealing design elements such as murals, decorative fencing, or adornment with rock, gravel, and recycled glass.
~~(f)~~

(g) “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)~~

(h) “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.

(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.

(G) Reasonable maintenance methods that do not further negative health impacts on disadvantaged communities or low-income communities and minimize usage of pesticides when providing care.
(H) Potential funding resources to achieve the goal of increased green highways in covered urban areas by a least 10 percent by 2035.

(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.