Bill Text: CA SB1184 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-05-23 - Held in committee and under submission. [SB1184 Detail]
Download: California-2013-SB1184-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: SB 1184 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 24, 2014
INTRODUCED BY Senator Hancock
FEBRUARY 20, 2014
An act to add Section 66649 to the Government Code, relating to
the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 1184, as amended, Hancock. San Francisco Bay Conservation and
Development Commission: sea level rise: regional resilience strategy.
Existing law, the McAteer-Petris Act, establishes the San
Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, and requires
the commission to regulate fill and development within a specified
area in and along the shoreline of the San Francisco Bay area, and to
implement comprehensive plans for the preservation and protection of
the San Francisco Bay and the Suisun Marsh. Existing law authorizes
the commission to develop regional strategies for addressing the
impacts of, and adapting to, the effects of sea level rise and other
impacts of global climate change on the San Francisco Bay and
affected shoreline areas.
This bill would require the commission, in collaboration with
various other state, regional, and local government agencies, to take
action to protect San Francisco Bay area residents from potential
innundation inundation and flooding
resulting from sea level rise by preparing a regional resilience
strategy for adapting to rising sea levels in the San Francisco Bay,
containing specified components. The bill would require the
commission, no later than December 31, 2015,
2018, to complete the strategy and submit to the Legislature
its recommendations for future actions to be taken regarding sea
level rise.
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) The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission
is a state agency with responsibility for comprehensively managing
the conservation and development of the San Francisco Bay and its
shoreline, and the protection and preservation of the Suisun Marsh.
The commission carries out this responsibility under the provisions
of the McAteer-Petris Act (Title 7.2 (commencing with Section 66600)
of the Government Code) (MPA), the policies of the San Francisco Bay
Plan (Bay Plan), the Suisun Marsh Preservation Act of 1977 (Division
19 (commencing with Section 29000) of the Public Resources Code)
(SMPA), and policies of the Suisun Marsh Protection Plan (Marsh
Plan).
(b) The commission is composed of 27 members, appointed by a
variety of authorities, including the Governor, the Speaker of the
Assembly, the Senate Committee on Rules, the boards of supervisors of
each of the nine San Francisco Bay area counties, the Association of
Bay Area Governments, the Transportation Agency, the Department of
Finance, the State Lands Commission, the Natural Resources Agency,
the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, the
United States Army Corps of Engineers, and the United States
Environmental Protection Agency.
(c) The commission's large and diverse membership, which includes
representatives from diverse interests in the San Francisco Bay area,
allows the commission to serve as a coordinator for affected
agencies and the public, where the public and those agencies can
collaborate and communicate their interests and perspectives, and
reach consensus on how to address critical issues affecting the San
Francisco Bay.
(d) The Legislature has directed the commission to keep the Bay
Plan up to date so that it reflects the latest scientific research on
the San Francisco Bay and addresses emerging issues that could
impact the bay in the future. To accomplish this, the Legislature has
empowered the commission to amend the Bay Plan if two-thirds or 18
of the 27 members of the commission vote for the amendment, after
providing for public review and a public hearing. Section 66652 of
the Government Code authorizes the commission to amend, or repeal and
adopt a new form of all or any part of, the Bay Plan, but requires
that those changes be consistent with the findings and declarations
of the policy contained in the MPA. Section 29202 of the Public
Resources Code further authorizes the commission to amend provisions
of the SMPA.
(e) When the MPA, SMPA, Bay Plan, and Marsh Plan were written, the
commission was unaware of the dynamic forces driving changes to the
San Francisco Bay and the Suisun Marsh. In the 1960s and 1970s, the
San Francisco Bay and the Suisun Marsh were perceived as having
static water levels that moved within predictable, stable tidal
ranges. In 1989, the commission first recognized the potential
effects of climate change and rising sea level on the San Francisco
Bay, and amended the Bay Plan to incorporate changes to its safety of
fills policies to ensure rising sea level was integrated into the
San Francisco Bay fill project designs. However, a lack of scientific
consensus and public acknowledgment of the problem made
implementation of these policies difficult. By the mid-2000s, a
scientific consensus had emerged that global climate was changing due
to anthropogenic forces, and that these changes would lead to, among
other things, significant sea level rise over time.
(f) Pursuant to Section 66646.2 of the Government Code, the
commission has general authority to plan for sea level rise. The
commission's 2011 study of sea level rise found that potential
impacts could have profound effects on the bay's waterfront
communities, economic sustainability, and ecology. The commission's
regional assessment of the potential impacts to the bay shoreline,
entitled "Living with a Rising Bay: Vulnerability and Adaptation in
San Francisco Bay and on its Shoreline," identified the threat of
global climate change and sea level rise on the bay's shoreline
communities and ecology and found that over 280 square miles of
shoreline land and over 250,000 residents are at risk of flooding at
just moderate levels of sea level rise. The assessment also estimated
that approximately $62,000,000,000 would be needed to replace
flooded business and residential structures as a result of sea level
rise.
(g) When the commission amended the Bay Plan in 2011 to address
climate change and sea level rise, it included a policy exhorting the
region to formulate a regional sea level rise adaptation strategy
for protecting critical developed shoreline areas and natural
ecosystems, enhancing the resilience of the bay and shoreline systems
and increasing their adaptive capacity, and specifying that the
strategy should be prepared by the commission in collaboration with
the Bay Area Joint Policy Committee, other regional, state, and
federal agencies, local governments, and the general public. The
policy recommends, in part, that the strategy incorporate an adaptive
management approach and be consistent with the goals of Chapter 728
of the Statutes of 2008 (SB 375), and that the principles of the
strategy be updated regularly to reflect changing conditions and
scientific information and include maps of shoreline areas that are
vulnerable to flooding based on projections of future sea level rise
and shoreline flooding, with particular attention given to
identifying and encouraging the development of long-term regional
flood protection strategies. In addition, the policy states that,
ideally, the regional strategy will determine where and how existing
development should be protected and infill development encouraged,
where new development should be permitted, and where existing
development should eventually be removed to allow the bay to migrate
inland.
(h) Currently, the state is dedicating resources to statewide sea
level rise adaptation planning in a manner that benefits the San
Francisco Bay through the California Environmental Protection Agency'
s Office of Planning and Research, the Natural Resources Agency's
Ocean Protection Council, the State Coastal Conservancy, and the
State Lands Commission. The efforts of these programs will provide
valuable resources to help support the San Francisco Bay area's
regional efforts to prepare a regional strategy to adapt to sea level
rise.
SEC. 2. It is the intent of the Legislature that, in light of the
findings and declarations in Section 1, the commission shall prepare
a regional strategy to address sea level rise, in collaboration with
affected regional and local governments and appropriate state and
federal agencies.
SEC. 3. Section 66649 is added to the Government Code, to read:
66649. (a) The commission shall, in collaboration with state,
regional, and local government agencies, take action to protect San
Francisco Bay area residents from potential inundation and flooding
resulting from sea level rise by preparing a regional resilience
strategy for adapting to rising sea levels in the San Francisco Bay.
The main goal of this resilience strategy shall be to increase San
Francisco Bay area preparedness and resilience to climate change
impacts by reducing the flood risk to valuable shoreline development
and protecting wetlands, transitional habitats, and bay-related
wildlife.
(b) The commission shall work with federal, state, regional, and
local partners to conduct shoreline adaptation planning, using tested
planning processes and tools, to formulate a regional resilience
strategy for the San Francisco Bay and surrounding areas that are at
risk that addresses flooding from rising sea level and storms, and
shall assist local governments to craft local strategies to address
the effects of sea level rise. The strategy shall include two
integrated components:
(1) Community or agency-based planning efforts undertaken with
local governments and special districts to increase the resilience of
specific shoreline areas and assets.
(2) A regional assessment of shoreline vulnerabilities and a
planning process to identify and develop adaptation options necessary
at the regional scale. Models, processes, and tools that address
communication, community engagement, and decisionmaking will be used
in collaboration with local partners and existing regional and
community efforts.
(c) Formulation of the regional resilience strategy shall, to the
extent possible, address all of the following goals and objectives:
(1) Advance regional public safety and economic prosperity by
protecting all of the following:
(A) Existing development that provides regionally significant
benefits.
(B) New shoreline development that is consistent with the San
Francisco Bay Plan and other applicable state policies.
(C) Infrastructure that is crucial to public health or the region'
s economy, such as airports, ports, regional transportation,
wastewater treatment facilities, major parks, recreational areas, and
trails.
(2) Enhance the San Francisco Bay ecosystem by identifying areas
where tidal wetlands and tidal flats can migrate landward; assuring
adequate volumes of sediment for marsh accretion; identifying
conservation areas that should be considered for acquisition,
preservation, or enhancement; developing and planning for flood
protection; and maintaining sufficient transitional habitat and
upland buffer areas around tidal wetlands.
(3) Integrate the protection of existing and future shoreline
development and infrastructure with the enhancement of the San
Francisco Bay ecosystem, such as by using feasible shoreline
protection measures that incorporate natural bay habitat for flood
control and erosion prevention.
(4) Encourage innovative approaches to sea level rise adaptation,
particularly multiobjective adaptation strategies.
(5) Identify a framework for integrating the adaptation responses
of multiple government agencies.
(6) Integrate regional mitigation measures designed to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions with regional adaptation measures designed
to address the unavoidable impacts of climate change.
(7) Address environmental justice and social equity issues.
(8) Integrate hazard mitigation and emergency preparedness
planning with adaptation planning by developing techniques for
reducing contamination releases, structural damage, and toxic mold
growth associated with the flooding of buildings, and establishing
emergency assistance centers in neighborhoods at risk from flooding
and other mitigation measures.
(9) Advance regional sustainability, encourage infill development
and job creation, provide diverse housing served by transit, and
protect historical and cultural resources.
(10) Encourage the remediation of shoreline areas with existing
environmental degradation and contamination in order to reduce risks
to the San Francisco Bay's water quality in the event of flooding.
(11) Identify and pursue research that supports adaptive
management of the strategy and that provides information useful for
planning and policy development on the impacts of climate change on
the San Francisco Bay, particularly those related to shoreline
flooding.
(12) Identify actions to prepare and implement the strategy,
including any needed changes in the law and policy.
(13) Identify mechanisms to provide information, tools, and
financial resources to enable local governments to integrate regional
climate change adaptation planning into local community planning
processes.
(d) The commission shall prepare the strategy in close
coordination with the Bay Area Joint Policy Committee, the State
Coastal Conservancy, the Ocean Protection Council, and the Office of
Planning and Research, and in such a way that the strategy may be
adopted as the shoreline resiliency component of the San Francisco
Bay area's sustainable communities strategy pursuant to Section
65080.
(e) The commission shall, no later than December 31,
2015, 2018, complete the regional resilience
strategy and shall submit to the Legislature its recommendations for
future actions to be taken regarding sea level rise.
