Vehicles: license plates: 8-letter license plates.

(1) Existing law requires the Department of Motor Vehicles, upon registering a vehicle, to issue to the owner two partially or fully reflectorized license plates or devices for a motor vehicle and requires that the number and letter characters on the plates have a minimum height of 2 34 inches, a minimum width of 1 14 inches, and a minimum spacing of characters of 516 of an inch. This bill would instead require that the number and letter characters on the license plates have a minimum width of 1316 inches, and a minimum spacing of characters of 14 of an inch. (2) Existing law authorizes the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue or renew environmental license plates and other specialized license plates to provide revenue for the California Environmental License Plate Fund, the Specialized License Plate Fund, and other specified license plate funds or accounts that indicate on the plates, among other design criteria, the combination of letters or numbers, or both, requested as a registration number by the applicant, to be displayed on the applicant's vehicle in lieu of regular license plates. Existing law requires that the department not establish a specialized license plate program for an agency, as defined, until the department has received 7,500 applications. Existing law also establishes procedures for the cancellation, transfer, or retention of the license plates and for the charging of additional fees. This bill would establish a specialized license plate program to be known as the "8-letter license plate" program for the support of the Natural and Agricultural Open Space and State Recreational Support Fund which would be created in the State Treasury. The bill would require that all revenue derived from the fees, after deducting the department's administrative costs, be deposited in the fund for specified purposes that include, among other things, subventions for open-space land programs, assistance to California fairs, and support of programs administered by the Department of Parks and Recreation.