BOARD AGENDA MEMORANDUM
SUBJECT:
Title
2018 Legislative Efforts and Recommended Positions on State Legislation: Senate Bill 881 (Wieckowski) Shoreline Subventions, Senate Bill 1301 (Beall) Expedited Permitting and Transparency for Human Life Safety Projects, and Assembly Bill 1889 Santa Clara Valley Water District Act Revisions. (Previously Listed as Item 5.5)
End
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
A. That the Board and City Council direct District and City staff to work together on advocacy efforts on water supply, flood protection, and other issues of mutual interest, including letter of support on bills and/or rulemaking actions, advocacy with federal and state elected officials and regulatory agency officials, and other actions; and
B. That the City Council consider supporting Senate Bill 881, Senate Bill 1301, and Assembly Bill 1889.
Body
SUMMARY:
Securing adequate funding, authorization, and permits for flood protection and water supply projects is difficult and requires advocacy efforts at the federal and state levels to move projects forward to completion. The District pursues these advocacy efforts year-round by meeting with federal, state and regulatory officials to advocate for funding, authorization, and permits for these projects. The City of Milpitas (City) has a long history of partnering with the District to advocate for such projects by sending letters of support on grant applications, federal funding requests, and other advocacy efforts for these projects. Recently, the City has partnered with the District on a number of advocacy efforts, including the South San Francisco Bay Shoreline Project and the Upper Berryessa Creek Flood Protection Project.
Recognizing the importance of joint advocacy efforts in advancing critical water supply, flood protection, and environmental stewardship projects, staff recommends that the City Council consider supporting three District-sponsored state legislative bills that benefit the City and the region, outlined below.
SB 881 (Wieckowski): South San Francisco Bay Shoreline Project - State Flood Subventions Authorization
This bill will add the South San Francisco Bay Shoreline Project to the list of authorized flood control projects that receive state flood subventions funding. The Shoreline Project will provide resiliency to sea level rise, restore former salt ponds to tidal marsh, complete missing segments of the San Francisco Bay Trail, and will increase flood protection for Silicon Valley where a 100-year coastal flood event could cause $6.14 billion in damages.
This bill would allow the District to receive an estimated $4 to $7 million in from the state for flood subventions reimbursements. State subventions reimburse costs such as rights-of-way and relocations for flood control, recreation, fish and wildlife enhancements, and temporary work area easements for construction staging and hauling routes.
This project is important to the City of Milpitas and to the shoreline region as a whole because it will provide flood protection from both extreme storm events and, over the longer term, sea level rise. This benefits not just the city’s residents who live in Milpitas, but also Milpitas residents who work in any of the shoreline cities, as this project will protect not just homes, but also the businesses along the shoreline, as well as the infrastructure along the shoreline which includes Highway 237 (a critical commuter transportation artery) and the Regional Wastewater Facility. In addition, it will provide environmental restoration and recreational benefits for both the city’s residents and the region as a whole. Consequently, this bill is also important to the City of Milpitas because it could save the project between $4 and $7 million local dollars, that would instead be paid for by the State. See Attachment 1 - Map of Shoreline Project.
SB 1301 (Beall) Flood Risk Reduction & Dam Safety Enhancement - Transparent & Expeditious Permitting for Human Life Safety
This bill would require a state agency to expedite permit processing and approval for projects that will maintain or improve human life safety protection through flood risk reduction or reduction of risk of dam failure. Expediting permits when human life safety or high value assets of national importance are threatened by flood risk could save lives and prevent catastrophic loss.
As the City is aware, state agencies often are understaffed and underfunded, and as a result, permits issued by state agencies are delayed months and sometimes years for some water supply and flood protection projects. The most recent example of this is with the Upper Berryessa Creek Flood Risk Mitigation Project, which was delayed for several months by a state agency. This critical project protects the Milpitas BART station as well as Milpitas homes and businesses, yet it was delayed by a state agency for almost a year while they conducted reviews and analysis that should have been performed during the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) process-after CEQA already had concluded for this project. This resulted not just in delays to the project and the benefits it confers to the City’s and region’s residents, businesses, and commuters, but also a lack of public input and involvement in that post-CEQA review and analysis by the state agency.
This bill seeks to remedy such delays by expediting certain human life safety projects, such as high-hazard dams (e.g., Anderson Dam’s Seismic Retrofit Project, anticipated construction start date Fiscal Year 2021), flood protection projects in flood-prone watersheds (e.g., Coyote Creek, anticipated construction start date Fiscal Year 2021), high-risk tidal flood zones of national economic importance (e.g., the Shoreline Project, anticipated construction start date Fiscal Year 2019), and others that meet specific criteria. NOTE: this bill would not exempt any projects from CEQA, and in fact require any project seeking expediting to have completed CEQA before seeking an expedited permit. The bill also includes a transparency provision that requires certain state agencies to report to the Legislature and the public their average permit processing times for designated permits. This provides an additional tool by which to measure regulatory performance.
This bill is important to the City as it can help accelerate critical life safety projects such as those listed above that will help provide flood protection to the City’s residents and businesses, while ensuring that the projects are in full compliance with CEQA.
AB 1889 (Caballero) Santa Clara Valley Water District Act Revisions
This bill would amend the Santa Clara Valley Water District Act to make three important reforms: 1) To improve fairness in parcel tax exemption processing; 2) To help ensure a socio-economically, fairly compensated, diverse Board of Directors, and 3) To ensure if a vacancy occurs on the Board, it is filled by a resident from the geographic district where the vacancy occurs. Each reform is detailed below.
1) Reforms Parcel Tax Exemption Process for Low-Income Seniors and the Disabled. AB 1889 would clarify that the District need only verify low-income status once, and that the taxpayer’s eligibility for the parcel tax exemption may remain in effect until the District is notified of a change in eligibility or has reason to believe the taxpayer is not eligible for the exemption.
2) Reforms the District Board of Directors Duties and Meeting Allowance. AB 1889 defines the duties of a Director and increases the number of meeting days for which a Director is eligible for remuneration from up to 10 days per month to 20 days per month, reflecting the actual number of working days required for the position. Directors often must work long hours without remuneration and that means the only people who can realistically serve on the Board are either retired or independently wealthy, which limits the socioeconomic diversity of the Board.
3) Reforms District Board Vacancy Appointments. AB 1889 will require that the appointment to a vacant seat on the District Board be made from the geographic district in which the vacancy exists rather than from anywhere in Santa Clara County, ensuring that the geographic district is represented by a resident of that district.
This bill is important to the City as it will streamline and simplify the parcel tax exemption process for low-income seniors and disabled residents of Milpitas, it will enable the District Board of Directors to more fully dedicate themselves to the increased number of expanding scope of responsibilities of the office and will increase the capacity of Directors to provide more public oversight of the District’s water supply, flood control, and groundwater management programs for the residents of Milpitas, and ensure appropriate community representation.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
There is no financial impact associated with this item.
CEQA:
The recommended action does not constitute a project under CEQA because it does not have a potential for resulting in direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment.
ATTACHMENTS:
Attachment 1: Map of Shoreline Project
UNCLASSIFIED MANAGER:
Manager
Rachael Gibson, 408-630-2884