SB-182 (Jackson) General plans: safety element
Status: 9/13 – In Assembly. Held at Desk.
Description: This bill would require the safety element, upon the next revision of the housing element or the hazard mitigation plan, on or after January 1, 2020, whichever occurs first, to be reviewed and updated as necessary to include a comprehensive retrofit strategy to reduce the risk of property loss and damage during wildfires, as specified, and would require the planning agency to submit the adopted strategy to the Office of Planning and Research for inclusion into the above-described clearinghouse. The bill would also require the planning agency to review and, if necessary, revise the safety element upon each revision of the housing element or local hazard mitigation plan, but not less than once every 8 years, to identify new information relating to retrofit updates applicable to the city or county that was not available during the previous revision of the safety element. By increasing the duties of local officials, this bill would create a state-mandated local program.
This bill would require a city or county that contains a very high fire risk area, as defined, upon each revision of the housing element on or after January 1, 2021, to amend the land use element of its general plan to contain, among other things, the locations of all very high fire risk areas within the city or county and feasible implementation measures designed to carry out specified goals, objectives, and policies relating to the protection of lives and property from unreasonable risk of wildfire. The bill would require the city or county to complete a review of, and make findings related to, wildfire risk reduction standards, as defined, upon each subsequent revision of the housing element, as provided. The bill would require the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to review the findings and make recommendations, as provided.
The bill would additionally require the Office of the State Fire Marshal, in consultation with the Office of Planning and Research and the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, on or before January 1, 2022, to adopt wildfire risk reduction standards that meet certain requirements and reasonable standards for third-party inspection and certifications for a specified enforcement program. The bill would also require the Office of the State Fire Marshal to, on or before January 1, 2023, update the maps of the very high fire hazard severity zones, as specified. The bill would require the Office of the State Fire Marshal to convene a working group of stakeholders, as specified, to assist in this effort and to consider specified national standards.
Note: The Legislative Counsel’s Digest for this bill is lengthy. Please review the full bill language for additional context.
AB-235 (Mayes) Electrical corporations: local publicly owned electric utilities: California Wildfire Catastrophe Fund Act.
Status: 6/27 – In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
Description: Existing law authorizes the commission, in a proceeding on an application by an electrical corporation to recover costs and expenses arising from a catastrophic wildfire occurring on or after January 1, 2019, to allow cost recovery if the costs and expenses are just and reasonable, after consideration of the conduct of the utility. In evaluating the reasonableness of the costs and expenses, the commission is required to consider the conduct of the electrical corporation and relevant information submitted into the commission record, including in 12 specified areas.
Notwithstanding the commission’s determination of whether the costs and expenses are just and reasonable as described above, when determining recovery by an electrical corporation for costs and expenses arising from a catastrophic wildfire occurring on or after January 1, 2019, this bill would authorize the commission to consider the electrical corporation’s financial status and determine the maximum amount the corporation can pay without harming ratepayers or materially impacting the electrical corporation’s ability to provide adequate and safe service.
AB-281 (Frazier) Transmission and distribution lines: undergrounding.
Status: 4/23 – Re-referred to Com. on U. & E.
Description: This bill would require the commission to require electrical corporations to develop and administer programs to replace overhead electric facilities along public streets and roads, and on other public or private properties in high fire threat districts, as determined by the commission, with underground electric facilities.
AB-296 (Cooley) Climate change: Climate Innovation Commission: voluntary tax contributions.
Status: 10/02 – Vetoed by Governor.
Description: This bill would establish the Climate Innovation Grant Program, to be administered by the Strategic Growth Council or another entity identified by the council that it determines to have the appropriate skills necessary to successfully implement this program. The bill would establish the Climate Innovation Fund, a special fund, in the State Treasury and would continuously appropriate the moneys in the fund to the council for purposes of the program. Once the Climate Innovation Fund accrues $2,000,000, the bill would require the council or the entity implementing the program to notify the Franchise Tax Board and would require the program to award grants for the development and research of new innovations and technologies that either reduce emissions of greenhouse gases or address impacts caused by climate change. The bill would repeal the program on January 1, 2031.
This bill would allow an individual to designate on their tax return that a specified amount in excess of their personal income tax liability be transferred to the Climate Innovation Voluntary Tax Contribution Account, which would be created by this bill. The bill would conform with those aforementioned administrative requirements by continuously appropriating those funds to the Franchise Tax Board and the Controller for administrative costs and to the Climate Innovation Fund, as specified. The bill would also conform by requiring the Strategic Growth Council to comply with certain internet website reporting requirements. The bill would make the voluntary tax contribution provisions operative upon notification of the Franchise Tax Board that the fund has accrued $2,000,000. The bill would repeal these provisions as of the sooner of December 1 of the year that the minimum contribution amount of $250,000 is not met or by a specified repeal date. By continuously appropriating these funds, the bill would make an appropriation.
AB-352 (Garcia) Wildfire Prevention, Safe Drinking Water, Drought Preparation, and Flood Protection Bond Act of 2020.
Status: 8/14 – From committee chair, with author’s amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on EQ.
Description: This bill would enact the Wildfire Prevention, Safe Drinking Water, Drought Preparation, and Flood Protection Bond Act of 2020, which, if approved by the voters, would authorize the issuance of bonds in the amount of $3,920,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to finance a wildlife prevention, safe drinking water, drought preparation, and flood protection program. The bill would provide for the submission of these provisions to the voters at the November 3, 2020, statewide general election.
AB-409 (Limón) Climate change: agriculture: grant program.
Status: 8/30 – In committee: Held under submission.
Description: This bill would require the [Strategic Growth Council] to provide guidance in the development of, and to coordinate the activities of member agencies of the council for, and to designate a state agency or department to administer, a grant program, known as the Agricultural Climate Adaptation Tools Program, as specified, to provide funding for activities that include development of specified planning tools, to be available in the public domain, for adapting to climate change and developing resiliency strategies in the agricultural sector, using the best available science, as specified. The bill would require the Department of Food and Agriculture to administer the program for the disbursement of grants. The bill would require the council to conduct specified pilot projects in the central valley, central coast, and desert regions of the state, and hold trainings for technical assistance providers on how to use the specified planning tools, with an emphasis on meeting the needs of small and moderately scaled farmers and ranchers, socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, and female farmers and ranchers. The bill would require the council, no later than June 30, 2020,council to make available, upon appropriation, up to $2,000,000 to fund the grant program, as specified. The bill would require the council to provide to the office the planning tools developed as part of the grant program for program, as well as information on any projects funded pursuant to these provisions, for possible incorporation into the clearinghouse for climate adaptation information, and information on any projects funded pursuant to these provisions for possible incorporation into the clearinghouse for climate adaptation information.
AB-552 (Stone) Coastal resources: Coastal Adaptation, Access, and Resilience Program
Status: 8/30 – In committee: Held under submission.
Description: This bill would establish the Program for Coastal Resilience, Adaptation, and Access for the purpose of funding specified activities intended to help the state prepare, plan, and implement actions to address and adapt to sea level rise and coastal climate change. The bill would create the Coastal Resilience, Adaptation, and Access Fund in the State Treasury, and would authorize the California Coastal Commission and specified state agencies to expend moneys in the fund, upon appropriation in the annual Budget Act, to take actions, based upon the best scientific information, that are designed to address and adapt to sea level rise and coastal climate change, as prescribed. The bill would require the Natural Resources Agency to annually make available information regarding any activity funded under the program on a publicly accessible internet website. The bill would also require the Director of State Planning and Research to consider the program in its administration of the Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program. The bill would also require the Natural Resources Agency, and any other state agency to which funding is allocated, to consider the guidance and resources developed by the Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program to help inform decisions relating to activities funded with moneys from the Coastal Resilience, Adaptation, and Access Fund.
This bill would require, for the 2020–21 fiscal year and for each fiscal year thereafter, an amount not less than equal to 30% of those funds received by the commission and required to be deposited into the General Fund by the commission pursuant to those provisions, except as provided,but not to exceed $50,000,000, to be transferred to the Coastal Resilience, Adaptation, and Access Fund and made available, upon appropriation in the annual Budget Act, for expenditure for purposes of the Program for Coastal Resilience, Adaptation, and Access.
AB-557 (Wood) Atmospheric Rivers: Research, Mitigation, and Climate Forecasting Program.
Status: 5/16 – In committee: Held under submission.
Description: Existing law establishes the Atmospheric Rivers: Research, Mitigation, and Climate Forecasting Program in the Department of Water Resources. Existing law requires the department, upon an appropriation for purposes of the program, to research climate forecasting and the causes and impacts that climate change has on atmospheric rivers, to operate reservoirs in a manner that improves flood protection, and to reoperate flood control and water storage facilities to capture water generated by atmospheric rivers.
This bill would appropriate $9,250,000 from the General Fund to the department in the 2019–20 fiscal year to operate the program.
AB-638 (Gray) Department of Water Resources: water storage: climate change impacts.
Status: 10/13 – Vetoed by Governor.
Description: This bill would require the [Department of Water Resources], as part of the update to the California Water Plan every 5 years, to identify water storage facilities vulnerable to climate change impacts and the mitigation strategies for anticipated adverse impacts, as provided. The bill would require the department to provide a copy of this information to the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature and to the Natural Resources Agency and the Office of Planning and Research for specified climate adaptation planning functions. The bill would require the department, subject to an appropriation, to mitigate, or make grants available for the mitigation of, adverse impacts to water storage facilities caused by climate change, as specified.
AB-659 (Mullin) Transportation: emerging transportation technologies: California Smart City Challenge Grant Program.
Status: 5/16 – In committee: Held under submission.
Description: This bill would establish the California Smart City Challenge Grant Program to enable municipalities to compete for grant funding for emerging transportation technologies to serve their transportation system needs, and would specify certain program goals. The bill would require the commission to form the California Smart City Challenge Workgroup on or before July 1, 2020, to guide the commission on program matters, as specified. The bill would require the commission, in consultation with the workgroup, to develop guidelines on or before March 1, 2021, for the program, which would not be subject to the Administrative Procedure Act, and would authorize the commission to revise them as necessary. The bill would make the implementation of the program contingent upon an appropriation in the annual budget act.
AB-660 (Levine) Building energy efficiency standards: solar reflectance of roofs.
Status: 8/26 – In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
Description: This bill would require the [State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission], during one or more of the next 4 triennial code adoption cycles after January 1, 2020, to consider amendments to the roof replacement building standards for alterations to existing low-rise, steep-sloped roof residential buildings with the goal of increasing the value of minimum aged solar reflectance up to 0.45 0.40 in the 2031 standard and the goal of expanding the range of climate zones in which minimum aged solar reflectance values are prescribed for those alterations. The bill would require the commission, prior to considering these amendments, to assess whether there is an adequate supply of labor resources and available compliant products in the climate zones for which the commission may consider the amendments. The bill would also require that the amendments be cost-effective and not be imposed on existing low-rise, steep-sloped roof residential buildings where the cost of compliance would exceed the actual energy cost savings achieved through compliance. The bill would also make findings and declarations regarding the benefit of installing cool-roof products on existing residential buildings.
AB-740 (Burke) Property insurance: fire hazard severity zones.
Status: 9/03 – Ordered to inactive file at the request of Senator McGuire.
Description: This bill would add to the insurers that are proportionately relieved of the liability to participate in the FAIR Plan those voluntarily writing basic property insurance on risks in high or very high fire hazard severity zones, as determined and mapped by the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The bill would also revise the similar provision relating to areas designated as brush hazard areas by making it specifically applicable to areas so designated at the time coverage begins.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
AB-839 (Mullin) Climate adaptation: strategy: Adaptation through Resiliency, Economic Vitality, and Equity Account.
Status: 8/30 – In committee: Held under submission.
Description: This bill would require the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, on or before July 1, 2021, to review the plan and develop a strategic resiliency framework, as specified. The bill would require updates to the plan to include include, among other things, a review of the progress made implementing past plans and an evaluation of each lead agency’s lead adaptation efforts, as well as a detailed description of the framework developed by the secretary. The bill would require each state agency identified in the framework to report to the secretary progress completing the recommendations and actions.
The bill would create the Adaptation through Resiliency, Resiliency through Adaptation, Economic Vitality, and Equity Account in the State Treasury, with moneys in the account, upon appropriation, to be allocated to provide financial assistance in the form of grants and financing, as defined, for climate resiliency and adaptation projects that achieve the recommendations and actions called for in the framework. The bill would require the secretary, in consultation with the Treasurer and the Director of State Planning and Research, to develop grants and financing to implement the recommendations and actions called for in the framework, as specified.
AB-933 (Petrie-Norris) Ecosystem resilience: watershed protection: watershed coordinators.
Status: 8/30 – In committee: Held under submission.
Description: This bill would authorize require the [Department of Conservation], to the extent funds are available, to establish and administer the Ecosystem Resilience Program to fund watershed coordinator positions, as provided, and other necessary costs, throughout the state for the purpose of achieving specified goals, including the goal to develop and implement watershed improvement plans, and other enhancement plans, plans to enhance the natural functions of a watershed, aligned with multiple statewide and regional objectives across distinct bioregions. The bill would authorize require the department to develop performance measures and accountability controls to track progress and outcomes. outcomes of all watershed coordinator grants. The bill would require, on or before January 31, 2022, and every 3 years thereafter, until January 31, 2028, the department to report those outcomes to the relevant appropriate fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature. The bill would require the department to adopt guidelines, as provided, to implement the above provisions.
AB-975 (Calderon) Environmental protection: California Adaptation Leadership and Coordination Act of 2019.
Status: 8/30 – In committee: Held under submission.
Description: This bill would establish the California Coastal Resilience and Adaptation Leadership and Coordination Act of 2019, which would require the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, in coordination with the Governor’s office, collaboration with the Director of State Planning and Research and other state entities, to communicate with other countries, states, regional collaboratives, and subnational governments to support and promote the state’s goals and policies relating to ocean, coastal, and terrestrial adaptation, near-shore terrestrial adaptation and resilience, and would require the secretary to take all action necessary when collaborating with other countries, states, regional collaboratives, and subnational governments related to accomplishing those goals and policies, as prescribed. The bill would also require the secretary, in collaboration with the director, to use quantified risk assessments of the impacts of climate change to establish priorities in carrying out the tasks under the act. The bill would authorize the secretary to appoint a designee to carry out these tasks. The bill would also authorize the secretary, where appropriate, to direct the Ocean Protection Council, or any other board, department, or office within the agency, to support the implementation of specified actions under the act. The bill would require the secretary to prepare and submit to the appropriate legislative committees post an annual report on the agency’s internet website on the progress made during the preceding year regarding those actions the secretary is required to take under the act. act and to annually notify specified committees of the Legislature of the availability of the report.
AB-1111 (Friedman) Outdoor recreation: Office of Outdoor Recreation: California Outdoor Recreation Account.
Status: 8/30 – In committee: Held under submission.
Description: This bill would establish, until January 1, 2025, the Office of Outdoor Recreation in the Office of the Governor. The bill would require the office to undertake certain activities, including supporting the outdoor recreation economy and working toward equitable access to outdoor areas of the state by engaging in specified activities. The bill would also require the office to create an advisory committee to provide advice, expertise, support, and service to the office.
The bill would authorize the office to receive assistance and funds from public and private sources, and would require that the moneys received by the office pursuant to this provision or appropriated by the Legislature for purposes of the bill be deposited in the California Outdoor Recreation Account, which the bill would create.
AB-1124 (Maienschein)Employment safety: outdoor workers: wildfire smoke.
Status: 8/15 – Ordered to inactive file at the request of Senator McGuire.
Description: This bill would require, by July 18, 2019, the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board to adopt emergency regulations that require employers to make respirators available to outdoor workers on any day the outdoor worker could reasonably be expected to be exposed to harmful levels of smoke from wildfires, or burning structures due to a wildfire, while working. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
AB-1298 (Mullin) Climate Resiliency, Fire Risk Reduction, Recycling, Groundwater and Drinking Water Supply, Clean Beaches, and Jobs Infrastructure Bond Act of 2020.
Status: 9/06 – From committee: Be re-referred to Coms. on W., P., & W. and NAT. RES. (Ayes 11. Noes 0.) (September 5). Re-referred to Com. on W., P., & W.
Description: Under existing law, programs have been established pursuant to bond acts for, among other things, drought, water, parks, climate, coastal protection, and outdoor access for all.
This bill would enact the Climate Resiliency, Fire Risk Reduction, Recycling, Groundwater and Drinking Water Supply, Clean Beaches, and Jobs Infrastructure Bond Act of 2020, which, if approved by the voters, would authorize the issuance of bonds in an unspecified amount pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to finance a climate resiliency, fire risk reduction, recycling, groundwater and drinking water supply, clean beaches, and jobs infrastructure program.
The bill would require the bond act to be submitted to the voters at the November 3, 2020, statewide general election.
This bill would require, with exceptions, fire inspectors, fire marshals, and fire plans examiners, as defined, employed by a state or local public agency, to complete one year of verifiable experience in the appropriate field, and within a specified time frame thereafter, to obtain certification from the Office of the State Fire Marshal. The bill would require a person who is employed as a fire inspector, fire marshal, or fire plans examiner to complete a minimum of 45 hours of continuing education for every 3-year period of employment in that capacity. The bill would require the state or the local public agency to bear the costs of certification and continuing education. By imposing these requirements on a local public agency, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would authorize a local public agency to impose fees that may be used to cover the cost of compliance with these provisions.
AB-1516 (Friedman) Fire prevention: wildfire risk: defensible space and fuels reduction management.
Status: 10/13 – Vetoed by Governor.
Description: (1) Existing law requires the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to identify areas in the state as very high fire hazard severity zones based on specified criteria and the severity of the fire hazard. Existing law requires that a person who owns, leases, controls, operates, or maintains an occupied dwelling or structure in, upon, or adjoining a mountainous area, forest-covered land, brush-covered land, grass-covered land, or land that is covered with flammable material that is within a very high fire hazard severity zone, as designated by a local agency, or a building or structure in, upon, or adjoining those areas or lands within a state responsibility area, to maintain a defensible space of 100 feet from each side and from the front and rear of the structure, as specified. A repeated violation within a specified timeframe of those requirements is a crime.
This bill would require a person described above to utilize more intense fuel reductions between 5 and 30 feet around the structure, and to create an ember-resistant zone within 5 feet of the structure, as provided. Because a violation of these provisions would be a crime or expand the scope of an existing crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
This bill would require each local agency having jurisdiction of property upon which conditions that are regulated by the defensible space provisions described above apply and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to make reasonable efforts to provide notice to affected residents of the above requirements before imposing penalties for a violation of those requirements. By imposing additional duties on local agencies, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
This bill would authorize the department, subject to availability of funding, to make local fire prevention grants available to certain entities to improve compliance with defensible space requirements in very high fire hazard severity zones through the creation of defensible space assessment or inspection programs.
This bill would require the director to establish a statewide program to allow qualified entities, as defined, to support and augment the department in its defensible space and home hardening assessment and education efforts and to establish a common reporting platform for participating qualified entities to report defensible space and home hardening assessment data to the department. The bill would require the department to develop and implement a training program to train individuals to support and augment the department in its defensible space and home hardening assessment and education efforts. The bill would require the department to issue to individuals who have successfully completed the training program a certification of completion. The bill would require the director, by January 1, 2024, to submit to the Legislature a report on the effectiveness of the statewide program. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2025.
SB-5 (Beall, McGuire, Portantino) Affordable Housing and Community Development Investment Act
Status: 10/13 – Vetoed by the Governor.
Description: This bill would establish in state government the Affordable Housing and Community Development Investment Program, which would be administered by the Affordable Housing and Community Development Investment Committee. The bill would authorize a city, county, city and county, joint powers agency, enhanced infrastructure financing district, affordable housing authority, community revitalization and investment authority, transit village development district, or a combination of those entities, to apply to the Affordable Housing and Community Development Investment Committee to participate in the program and would authorize the committee to approve or deny plans for projects meeting specific criteria. The bill would also authorize certain local agencies to establish an affordable housing and community development investment agency and authorize an agency to apply for funding under the program and issue bonds, as provided, to carry out a project under the program.
The bill would require the Affordable Housing and Community Development Investment Committee to adopt guidelines for plans. Subject to the Legislature enacting a budget bill for the applicable fiscal year that specifies the amount for the committee to allocate pursuant to the program, the bill would require the committee to approve no more than $200,000,000 per year from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2026, and $250,000,000 per year from July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2030, in transfers from a county’s ERAF for applicants for plans approved pursuant to this program. This bill would provide that eligible projects include, among other things, the predevelopment, development, acquisition, rehabilitation, and preservation of workforce and affordable housing, certain transit-oriented development, and projects promoting strong neighborhoods.
The bill would require the Affordable Housing and Community Development Investment Committee, upon approval of a plan and subject to specified conditions, to issue an order directing the county auditor to transfer an amount of ad valorem property tax revenue that is equal to the affordable housing and community development investment amount approved by the committee, except as provided, from the county’s ERAF. The bill would require the county auditor to either deposit that amount into the Affordable Housing and Community Development Investment Fund, which would create this bill in the treasury of each county, or, if the applicant is a specified type of authority or special district to transfer to the city or county that created the authority or district an amount of property tax revenue equal to the amount approved by the Affordable Housing and Community Development Investment Committee for that authority or district. The bill would require the city or county that created the district to, upon receipt, transfer those funds to the authority or district in an amount equal to the affordable housing and community development investment amount for that authority or district. By imposing additional duties on local officials, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would authorize applicants to use approved amounts to incur debt or issue bonds or other financing to support an approved project.
Funding allocated to the program shall be used to support a plan that includes affordable housing. Subject to paragraph (2), eligible uses of this funding include:
(E) Protecting communities dealing with the effects of climate change, including, but not limited to, sea level rise, wildfires, seismic safety, and flood protection. Eligible projects include the construction, repair, replacement, and maintenance of infrastructure, including natural infrastructure, related to protecting communities from climate change.
SB-45 (Allen) Wildfire Prevention, Safe Drinking Water, Drought Preparation, and Flood Protection Bond Act of 2020.
Status: 9/10 – From committee with author’s amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR.
Description: This bill would enact the Wildfire Prevention, Safe Drinking Water, Drought Preparation, and Flood Protection Bond Act of 2020, which, if approved by the voters, would authorize the issuance of bonds in the amount of $4,069,000,000 $4,189,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to finance projects for a wildfire prevention, safe drinking water, drought preparation, and flood protection program.
This bill would provide for the submission of these provisions to the voters at the March 3, 2020, statewide primary election.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
SB-69 (Wiener) Ocean Resiliency Act of 2019.
Status: 8/30 – August 30 hearing postponed by committee.
Description: This bill would require the agency to inventory the state’s existing coastal wetlands resources and prepare a new study that meets these goals, and to submit the study to the Legislature on or before January 1, 2023. The bill would require the study to be updated, at a minimum, once every 5 years after January 1, 2023.
This bill would require the conservancy to submit a report, as provided, to the Legislature on that pilot program on or before December 31, 2022, and, upon appropriation by the Legislature, would require the conservancy to develop, in partnership with the United States Army Corps of Engineers, a beneficial reuse program to place and reuse dredged sediment for coastal wetland restoration projects.
This bill would require timber harvesting plans, nonindustrial timber management plans, and working forest management plans on plans filed on or after January 1, 2020, for lands containing or adjacent to watercourses bearing listed anadromous salmonids included on a specified list of water quality limited segments impaired by sediment to include an erosion control implementation plan that describes methods that will be used to avoid significant sediment discharge into watercourses from timber operations. is consistent with specified law. The bill would prohibit timber harvesting activity from being undertaken under a timber harvesting plan that requires an erosion control implementation plan on ground that shows evidence of extreme erosion potential, unless the timber harvesting plan has been approved by a certified and licensed engineering geologist and is transmitted to the appropriate California regional water quality control board for review. with an extreme erosion hazard rating unless the timber harvesting plan has been reviewed by the California Geological Survey.
Note: The Legislative Counsel’s Digest for this bill is lengthy. Please review the full bill language for additional context.
SB-182 (Jackson) General plans: safety element
Status: 9/13 – In Assembly. Held at Desk.
Description: This bill would require the safety element, upon the next revision of the housing element or the hazard mitigation plan, on or after January 1, 2020, whichever occurs first, to be reviewed and updated as necessary to include a comprehensive retrofit strategy to reduce the risk of property loss and damage during wildfires, as specified, and would require the planning agency to submit the adopted strategy to the Office of Planning and Research for inclusion into the above-described clearinghouse. The bill would also require the planning agency to review and, if necessary, revise the safety element upon each revision of the housing element or local hazard mitigation plan, but not less than once every 8 years, to identify new information relating to retrofit updates applicable to the city or county that was not available during the previous revision of the safety element. By increasing the duties of local officials, this bill would create a state-mandated local program.
This bill would require a city or county that contains a very high fire risk area, as defined, upon each revision of the housing element on or after January 1, 2021, to amend the land use element of its general plan to contain, among other things, the locations of all very high fire risk areas within the city or county and feasible implementation measures designed to carry out specified goals, objectives, and policies relating to the protection of lives and property from unreasonable risk of wildfire. The bill would require the city or county to complete a review of, and make findings related to, wildfire risk reduction standards, as defined, upon each subsequent revision of the housing element, as provided. The bill would require the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to review the findings and make recommendations, as provided.
The bill would additionally require the Office of the State Fire Marshal, in consultation with the Office of Planning and Research and the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, on or before January 1, 2022, to adopt wildfire risk reduction standards that meet certain requirements and reasonable standards for third-party inspection and certifications for a specified enforcement program. The bill would also require the Office of the State Fire Marshal to, on or before January 1, 2023, update the maps of the very high fire hazard severity zones, as specified. The bill would require the Office of the State Fire Marshal to convene a working group of stakeholders, as specified, to assist in this effort and to consider specified national standards.
Note: The Legislative Counsel’s Digest for this bill is lengthy. Please review the full bill language for additional context.
SB-295 (McGuire) Personal income taxes: Fire Safe Home Tax Credits.
Status: 8/30 – August 30 hearing: Held in committee and under submission.
Description: This bill would allow credits against the tax imposed by the Personal Income Tax Law for each taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2020, and before January 1, 2025, to a qualified taxpayer for qualified costs relating to qualified home hardening, as defined, and for qualified costs relating to qualified vegetation management, as defined, in specified amounts. The bill also would include additional information required for any bill authorizing a new income tax credit and would require the Legislative Analyst’s Office to prepare a written report regarding the credits, as provided.
This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
This bill would authorize a city or county that has adopted and updated within a specified amount of time a local hazard mitigation plan or other document that fulfills the commensurate goals and objectives of, and contains the information required pursuant to, the items required to be included in the safety element, to comply with the requirement that the safety element be updated upon each revision of the housing element or local hazard mitigation plan by attaching or referring to the local hazard mitigation plan or other document in the safety element.
SB-487 (Caballero) Department of Water Resources: aerial snow survey.
Status: 10/13 – Vetoed by the Governor.
Description: This bill would require, to the extent an appropriation is made for these purposes, the department’s California snow survey program to conduct aerial surveys of the snowpack and conduct supporting forecasts of runoff volume and timing for the watersheds of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range and the Klamath-Trinity Mountains, including areas that drain or supply water to major reservoirs and lakes. The bill would require the department to conduct the surveys and forecasts up to 10 times per year and to analyze and make publicly available any summaries and underlying data, as specified.
SB-535 (Moorlach) Wildfires and forest fires: air emissions
Status: 8/30 – August 30 hearing: Held in committee and under submission.
Description: This bill would require, no later than May 1, 2020, and annually thereafter, the state board, in consultation with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, to submit a specified report to the Legislature that includes require the report to include information, if feasible, regarding the greenhouse gas, criteria air pollutant, and short-lived climate pollutant emissions from wildfires and forest fires; fires, an assessment of the increased severity of wildfires and forest fires from the impacts of climate change; change, and a calculation of the increase in the emissions of criteria air pollutants, greenhouse gases, and short-lived climate pollutants based on the increased severity of wildfires and forest fires assessed. The bill would require the state board to identify what, if any, information in the report should be included in the scoping plan. The bill would also reduce the reporting period to every 3 years and require the state board to post the report on the state board’s internet website.
