Upper Los Angeles River and Tributaries Working Group.

Existing law provides for the protection, enhancement, and restoration of rivers in this state. Existing law establishes the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and prescribes the membership and functions and duties of the conservancy with regard to the acquisition, preservation, and improvement of real property within the Santa Monica Mountains zone, as defined. This bill would establish within the conservancy the Upper Los Angeles River and Tributaries Working Group. The bill would require the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, in consultation with the conservancy, and, to the extent they wish to consult, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the City of Los Angeles, to consider requests from specified local agency representatives to participate in the working group and would authorize them to appoint no more than 23 representatives to the working group. The bill would require, by March 1, 2019, the working group to develop, through watershed-based planning methods and community engagement, a revitalization plan for the Upper Los Angeles River, the tributaries of the Pacoima Wash, Tujunga Wash, and Verdugo Wash, and any additional tributary waterway that the working group determines to be necessary. The bill would require the revitalization plan to address the unique and diverse needs of the Upper Los Angeles River, Pacoima Wash, Tujunga Wash, and Verdugo Wash, and the communities through which they pass, and to include watershed education programs. The bill would require the conservancy to provide any necessary staffing to assist the working group. The bill would require the working group to submit the revitalization plan to the conservancy for approval. The bill would require the revitalization plan to be considered an amendment to the watershed and open space plan for the San Gabriel and Los Angeles Rivers upon adoption by the conservancy and, to the extent that the city or county wishes to consider the plan, would require the conservancy to submit the plan to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the Los Angeles City Council, as prescribed. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Upper Los Angeles River and its tributaries.