Cal. PRC § 6311.5 — California Code / Code prc / Division 6 / Part 1 / Chapter 4 / Article 1 / Section 6311.5
Section 6311.5
Status: in_force

(a) For the purposes of this section, the following terms shall have the following meanings:

(1) “Local trustee” means a local trustee of granted public trust lands that is a county, city, or district, including water, sanitary, regional park, port, or harbor district, or any other local political or corporate subdivision that has been granted public trust lands through a legislative grant.

(2) “Gross public trust revenues” means those gross revenues that are subject to subdivision (c) of Section 6306.

(b) Addressing the impacts of sea level rise for all of its legislatively granted public trust lands pursuant to this section shall be among the management priorities of a local trustee. The geographic scope of a local trustee’s assessment of the impacts from sea level rise is not required to go beyond the boundaries of the local trustee’s granted public trust lands.

(c) A local trustee, whose gross public trust revenues average over two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) annually between January 1, 2009, and January 1, 2014, shall prepare and submit to the commission, no later than July 1, 2019, an assessment of how the local trustee proposes to address sea level rise. A local trustee whose gross public trust revenues are two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) or less may, but is not required to, prepare and submit to the commission an assessment.

(d) For the purposes of subdivision (c), a local trustee shall consider and use relevant information from the 2009 California Climate Adaptation Strategy prepared by the Natural Resources Agency, the Report on Sea Level Rise Preparedness prepared by the State Lands Commission, the Sea-Level Rise for the Coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington: Past, Present, and Future, a report prepared by the National Academy of Sciences, the Resolution of the California Ocean Protection Council on Sea-Level Rise, the State of California Sea-Level Rise Guidance Document, and any subsequent updates to those reports that become available six months prior to the date the local trustee submits the assessment to the commission. A local trustee’s assessment prepared pursuant to subdivision (c) shall include all of the following:

(1) An assessment of the impact of sea level rise on granted public trust lands, as described in the Resolution of the California Ocean Protection Council on Sea-level Rise and the latest version of the State of California Sea-Level Rise Guidance Document.

(2) Maps showing the areas that may be affected by sea level rise in the years 2030, 2050, and 2100. These maps shall include the potential impacts of 100-year storm events. A local trustee may rely on appropriate maps generated by other entities.

(3) An estimate of the financial cost of the impact of sea level rise on granted public trust lands. The estimate shall consider, but is not limited to, the potential cost of repair of damage to and the value of lost use of improvements and land, and the anticipated cost to prevent or mitigate potential damage.

(4) A description of how the local trustee proposes to protect and preserve natural and manmade resources and facilities located, or proposed to be located, on trust lands and operated in connection with the use of the trust lands. The description shall include, but is not limited to, how wetlands restoration and habitat preservation would mitigate impacts of sea level rise.

(e) In addressing the impacts of sea level rise, a local trustee shall collaborate with its lessees, appropriate local, state, and federal agencies, and other users of the granted public trust lands.

(f) (1) A local trustee that prepares an assessment pursuant to subdivision (c) shall submit a copy to the commission in hard copy and electronic form. The commission shall make the assessment available to the public on its Internet Web site and, for informational purposes, shall send an electronic copy to each member of the Climate Action Team, the climate change program manager in the office of the Secretary for Environmental Protection, and the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research.

(2) For purposes of compliance with this subdivision, if a trustee has already completed an assessment of the impacts of sea level rise that meets the criteria of this section, the trustee may submit that assessment to the commission.

(g) The commission shall exempt a local trustee of granted public trust lands from this section if the commission finds either of the following:

(1) The local trustee’s public trust lands are not subject to sea level rise by 2100, based upon the highest projections in the most recent version of the State of California Sea-Level Rise Guidance Document.

(2) The cost to provide an assessment of how the local trustee proposes to address the impacts of sea level rise substantially outweighs the benefit the action would have in preventing the potential economic and environmental harms associated with sea level rise on the local trustee’s granted public trust lands. In making this determination, the economic benefits of all ecological services provided by the existing natural resources in the local trustee’s granted public trust lands shall be considered.

(h) The commission shall exempt a local trustee from this section if the revenues derived from its granted public trust lands and assets subject to subdivision (c) of Section 6306 or funding made available to it from other discretionary sources is not sufficient to pay for the cost of assessing the impacts of sea level rise on granted public trust land and providing this information to the commission.

(i) The commission shall consider a local trustee’s request for an exemption pursuant to subdivision (g) or (h) at a properly noticed commission meeting if the request is made before November 1, 2018.

(j) Other than submission of the assessment required by subdivision (c), this section does not require a local trustee to implement any specific actions to address sea level rise pursuant to this section.

(k) Nothing in this section shall be construed to conflict with any federal regulations governing sea level rise.