State parks.

(1) Under existing law, the Department of Parks and Recreation administers the state park system. Existing law requires, following classification or reclassification of a unit by the State Park and Recreation Commission, and prior to the development of any new facilities in any previously classified unit, the department to prepare a general plan or revise any existing plan for the unit. This bill would revise the department's responsibilities regarding the preparation and revision of the general plan. (2) Existing law requires that the purpose of state parks be to preserve outstanding natural, scenic, and cultural values, indigenous aquatic and terrestrial fauna and flora, and the most significant examples of ecological regions of California. Each state park is required to be managed as a composite whole in order to restore, protect, and maintain its native environmental complexes to the extent compatible with the primary purpose for which the park was established. This bill would delete those requirements. (3) Existing law requires the general plan, for a unit of the state park system that is the subject of an operating agreement between the department and another public agency for the care, maintenance, administration, and control of lands under the jurisdiction of any party to the agreement for the purpose of the state park system, to specifically evaluate and define the manner in which the unit is proposed to be operated. The general plan is required to be reviewed by the commission for a determination that the unit will be operated in a manner that generally meets the standards followed by the department in its operation of similar units, that enhances the general public use and enjoyment of, and recreational and educational experiences at, the unit, and that provides for the satisfactory management of park resources. Revenues, received from lands subject to operating agreements entered into, renewed, or renegotiated on and after October 1, 1994, in excess of the cost, maintenance, operation, administration, improvement, or development of those lands, as determined by the department, are required to be available to the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act, for expenditure for support of the department. This bill would delete those requirements.