Vehicles: off-highway vehicle recreation: County of Inyo.

Existing law authorizes an off-highway motor vehicle that has been issued a plate or device to be operated or driven upon a highway under certain circumstances. Existing law authorizes various public entities, and the Director of Parks and Recreation, to designate a highway, or portion thereof, for the combined use of regular vehicular traffic and off-highway motor vehicles if certain requirements are met. Existing law prohibits a highway from being designated for this combined use for a distance of more than 3 miles. This bill would, until January 1, 2017, authorize the County of Inyo to establish a pilot project that would exempt from this prohibition specified combined-use highways, except as provided, in the unincorporated area in the County of Inyo so that the highways can be used to link existing off-highway motor vehicle trails and trailheads on federal Bureau of Land Management or United States Forest Service lands, and to link off-highway motor vehicle recreational-use areas with necessary service and lodging facilities, in order to provide a unified linkage of trail systems for off-highway motor vehicles, among other things, as prescribed. The bill would authorize the pilot project to include the use of a state highway, subject to the approval of the Department of Transportation, or the crossing of a highway, and would require the County of Inyo to indemnify the state, as specified. The bill would require the County of Inyo, in consultation with the Department of the California Highway Patrol, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Parks and Recreation, not later than January 1, 2016, to prepare and submit to the Legislature a report evaluating the effectiveness of the pilot project, and containing specified information.