The Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973 prohibits a person from conducting timber operations unless a timber harvesting plan prepared by a registered professional forester has been submitted to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The act authorizes the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to exempt from those provisions of the act a person engaging in specified forest management activities, including, the harvesting of trees, limited to those trees that eliminate the vertical continuity of vegetative fuels and the horizontal continuity of tree crowns, for the purpose of reducing the rate of fire spread, duration and intensity, fuel ignitability, or ignition of tree crowns if the tree harvesting will decrease fuel continuity and increase the quadratic mean diameter of the stand, and the tree harvesting area will not exceed 300 acres. Under existing law, the notice of exemption issued for this exemption, known as the Forest Fire Prevention Exemption, may be authorized only if certain conditions are met, including that only trees less than 18 inches in stump diameter, measured at 8 inches above ground level, may be removed, as provided. This bill would provide that an additional notice of exemption, known as the Forest Fire Prevention Pilot Project Exemption, may be authorized if certain conditions are met, including, among others, that only trees less than 24 inches in stump diameter, measured at 8 inches above ground level, may be removed, as provided. The bill would provide that these provisions shall become inoperative 3 years after the effective date of regulations adopted by the board implementing these provisions.
Sponsored bills
Existing law authorizes the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, participating counties, and the State Public Works Board to acquire, design, and construct local jail facilities approved by the Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) . Existing law authorizes the State Public Works Board to issue revenue bonds, notes, or bond anticipation notes in the amounts of $445,771,000 and $774,229,000, in 2 phases, to finance the acquisition, design, and construction, and a reasonable construction reserve, of approved local jail facilities, as specified. The funds derived from those revenue bonds, notes, or bond anticipation notes are continuously appropriated for the purposes described above. This bill would decrease the authorization for revenue bonds, notes, or bond anticipation notes in the first phase from $445,771,000 to $365,771,000 and increase the authorization of the 2nd phase from $774,229,000 to $854,229,000. Existing law authorizes the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, a participating county, and the board to acquire, design, renovate, or construct a local youthful offender rehabilitative facility, approved by the BSCC, or a site or sites owned by, or subject to a lease or option to purchase held by, a participating county. Existing law authorizes the issuance of up to $300,000,000 in revenue bonds, notes, or bond anticipation notes to finance the acquisition, design, renovation, or construction, and a reasonable construction reserve, of approved local youthful offender rehabilitative facilities. This bill would, in the event that a county that has been conditionally awarded financing later determines that participating with other counties in a shared regional facility would provide an improved solution to the county's needs and the needs of other counties, authorize the county to apply to the BSCC for redirection of the conditional award to another county that will be the lead county for the regional facility, in conjunction with the original county and, potentially, other counties. The bill would authorize the board to redirect the conditional award, prior to any approval and establishment of the project, if certain determinations are made by the BSCC.
(1) The Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2011 requires a party bringing an action or proceeding alleging that a lead agency's approval of a project certified by the Governor as an environmental leadership development project is in violation of the California Environmental Quality Act to file the action or proceeding with the Court of Appeal with geographic jurisdiction over the project and requires the Court of Appeal to issue its decision within 175 days of the filing of the petition. The Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2011 requires the lead agency to concurrently prepare the record of proceeding for the leadership project with the review and consideration of the project. The Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2011 provides that the above provision does not apply to a project for which a lead agency fails to certify an environmental impact report on or before June 1, 2014. The Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2011 is repealed by its own terms on January 1, 2015. This bill would instead require the Judicial Council, on or before July 1, 2014, to adopt a rule of court to establish procedures applicable to actions or proceedings seeking judicial review of a public agency's action in certifying the environmental impact report and in granting project approval that requires the actions or proceedings, including any appeals therefrom, be resolved, within 270 days of the certification of the record of proceedings. The bill would extend the operation of the judicial review procedures unless the lead agency fails to certify an environmental impact report for an environmental leadership project on or before January 1, 2016. The bill would provide that the above provisions do not apply to a project if the Governor does not certify the project as an environmental leadership development project prior to January 1, 2016. Because this bill would extend the time period for which a lead agency would be required to concurrently prepare the record of proceeding with the review and consideration of the environmental leadership development projects, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the lead agency, within 10 days of the Governor's certification, to issue, at the applicant's expense, a specified public notice, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. The bill would repeal the Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2011 on January 1, 2017. (2) The California Environmental Quality Act, commonly known as CEQA, requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA establishes a procedure by which a person may seek judicial review of the decision of the lead agency made pursuant to CEQA. This bill would provide that aesthetic and parking impacts of a residential, mixed-use residential, or employment center project, as defined, on an infill site, as defined, within a transit priority area, as defined, shall not be considered significant impacts on the environment. The bill would require the Office of Planning and Research to prepare and submit to the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, and the secretary to certify and adopt, revisions to the guidelines for the implementation of CEQA establishing criteria for determining the significance of transportation impacts of projects within transit priority areas. This bill would, except for specified circumstances, exempt from CEQA residential, employment center, and mixed-use development projects meeting specified criteria. Because a lead agency would be required to determine the applicability of this exemption, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would require the public agency, in certifying the environmental impact report and in granting approvals for a specified entertainment and sports center project located in the City of Sacramento, including the concurrent preparation of the record of proceedings and the certification of the record of proceeding within 5 days of the filing of a specified notice, to comply with specified procedures. Because a public agency would be required to comply with those new procedures, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the Judicial Council, on or before July 1, 2014, to adopt a rule of court to establish procedures applicable to actions or proceedings seeking judicial review of a public agency's action in certifying the environmental impact report and in granting project approval that requires the actions or proceedings, including any appeals therefrom, be resolved, to the extent feasible, within 270 days of the certification of the record of proceedings. The bill would provide that the above provisions are inoperative and repealed on January 1 of the following year if the applicant fails to notify the lead agency before the release of the draft environmental impact report for public comment that the applicant is electing to proceed pursuant to the above provisions. (3) Existing law requires the development, adoption, and updating of a congestion management program for each county that includes an urbanized area, as defined. The plan is required to contain specified elements and to be submitted to regional agencies, as defined, for determination of whether the program is consistent with regional transportation plans. The regional agency is then directed to monitor the implementation of all elements of each congestion management program. The required elements include traffic level of service standards for a system of designated highways and roadways. Existing law defines "infill opportunity zone" for purposes of the above-described provisions and exempts streets and highways in an infill opportunity zone from the level of service standards specified in the above-described provisions and instead requires alternate level of service standards to be applied. Existing law prohibits a city or county from designating an infill opportunity zone after December 31, 2009. This bill would revise the definition of "infill opportunity zone," as specified. The bill would authorize the designation of an infill opportunity zone that is a transit priority area within a sustainable communities strategy or alternative planning strategy adopted by an applicable metropolitan planning organization. (4) Existing law terminates the designation of an infill opportunity zone if no development project is completed within that zone within 4 years from the date of the designation. This bill would repeal this provision. This bill would make findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the City of Sacramento. (5) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
This measure would designate the interchange between State Highway Route 99 and Riego Road in Sutter County as the Dean Patton Memorial Interchange. The measure would also request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.
This measure would urge the United States Congress and the President to establish new entrepreneur and science, technology, engineering, or mathematics-related visa categories for legal immigrants as part of comprehensive federal immigration reform, that would, among other things, create an Entrepreneur's Visa for legal immigrants, provide authorization to adjust the status of not more than 50,000 aliens who have earned a master's degree or a doctorate degree, as specified, to that of aliens conditionally admitted for permanent residence, and eliminate per-country caps for employment-based immigrant visas.
Existing law provides various circumstances that constitute oral copulation against an individual's will and sexual penetration against an individual's will, including an act accomplished with an individual who is not the spouse of the perpetrator where the individual submits under the belief that the individual committing the act is the victim's spouse, and this belief is induced by artifice, pretense, or concealment practiced by the accused, with the intent to induce the belief. This bill would instead provide that these types of oral copulation and sexual penetration occur where the individual submits under the belief that the individual committing the act is someone known to the victim other than the accused. By expanding the definition of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
This measure would encourage state and federal agencies with jurisdiction over forest resource management to collaborate across jurisdictions with regard to landscape-scale efforts to maintain and restore California's forests to protect the state's natural resources and water supply for future generations.
This measure would recognize the 25th anniversary of Little Saigon.
Existing law authorized the construction of a memorial to California's Vietnam veterans on the grounds of the State Capitol, as specified, and provided that funds for the construction of the memorial would be provided through private contributions. Existing law requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to establish a statewide Veterans Memorial Registry, and to make it available on that department's Internet Web site. This bill, until January 1, 2020, would require the department to annually compile a list of names of Vietnam veterans to be added to the memorial, as specified. The bill would require the department to form a specified committee to review and consider requests from the public to include names on the memorial, as specified. The bill would authorize the names on the list to be added to the memorial if specified requirements are met, including that adequate private funding is available.
Existing law authorizes, to the extent permitted by federal law, members of the United States Military Reserve and National Guard who are called to active duty as a result of the Iraq or Afghanistan conflicts, to defer payments on mortgages, credit cards, retail installment accounts and contracts, real property taxes and assessments, and vehicle leases for the period of active duty, plus 60 calendar days, or 180 days, whichever is the lesser, as specified. Existing law also requires any entity that was providing any type of health care coverage to a member of the United States Military Reserve or National Guard who is called to active duty as a result of the Iraq or Afghanistan conflicts to reinstate the health care coverage without waiting periods or exclusion of coverage for preexisting conditions, and makes a violation of this requirement subject to enforcement under the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, a willful violation of which is a crime. Existing law also provides that a spouse or legal dependent, or both, of a member is entitled to the benefits accorded to a member, if the member is eligible for those benefits. This bill would extend those deferral provisions and reinstatement of health care coverage provisions to a reservist, as defined, who is called to active duty on and after January 1, 2014, and to a spouse or legal dependent, as specified. This bill would also authorize the deferral of payments on any obligations owed to a utility company. The bill would limit the deferment period on financial obligations to not more than 180 days within a 365-day period. This bill would also require a copy of the activation or deployment orders and any other information that substantiates the duration of the service member's military service to be delivered to an obligor in order for an obligation of a reservist to be deferred, as provided. This bill would expand the scope of an existing crime by requiring a reservist to provide information under the penalty of perjury, and by making violations of the reinstatement of health care coverage for reservists requirement subject to enforcement under the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, thereby imposing a state‑mandated local program. This bill would additionally impose a state‑mandated local program by imposing new duties upon local tax officials with respect to the deferral of any payment of property tax or any special assessment. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.