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SACRAMENTO – The Senate
Committee on Natural Resources and Water yesterday voted to approve legislation
by Senators Lois Wolk (D-Davis) and Christine Kehoe (D-San
Diego) to safeguard the long-term future of the state parks system by establishing a transparent process to balance
competing interests and demands on our state parks land—a process that already
exists and the local and federal level.
“Our state parks system was created to
offer Californians recreational opportunities, protect our state’s largely
irreplaceable natural resources, and showcase some of the state’s most unique
and cultural and historic features,” said Wolk. “As our state parks are being
targeted for budget cuts and massive closures, we owe it to future generations
and this state’s taxpayers to safeguard our investment in this multi-million
dollar public asset.”
Senate Bill 580 would enact strong
statewide policy to protect state park resources from use for infrastructure
and other development projects that are inconsistent with the mission of the
state’s parks. Specifically, SB 580 would prohibit state park lands’ use for
non-park purposes unless there is no practical alternative to using those lands
and the parkland is substituted with land of equal value, or a combination of
replacement lands and monetary compensation. The provisions in SB 580 draw
heavily on existing park protection laws and policies in place for local parks,
as well as protections for parks that have received federal Land & Water
Conservation Act funding.
“Local governments, private developers
and others have often considered state parks ‘fair game’ when proposing major
infrastructure projects,” said Kehoe, joint author of SB 580. “SB 580
levels the playing field for our state parks and sets out clear ‘rules of the
game’ for protecting our parks. It’s a measure of statewide protection
that is long overdue. Our state parks are everybody’s
back yard!”
“The more than 100-year commitment that
Californians have made in their state park system must be protected,” said
Traci Verardo-Torres, vice president of government affairs for the California
State Parks Foundation, which is sponsoring the bill. “These are places
that have been paid for, improved, and managed by taxpayer funds, bond dollars,
camping and entrance fees and more. They belong to every resident of this
state.”
The measure, which will next be heard by
the Senate Appropriations Committee, is a
reintroduction of a measure carried by Wolk in 2009 that was approved by the
legislature but didn’t garner the signature of then-Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger.
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