Natural resources: equitable outdoor access: 30x30 goal: urban nature-based projects., the official text

An act to add Section 1006 to the Public Resources Code, relating to natural resources.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

By Executive Order No. N-82-20, Governor Gavin Newsom directed the Natural Resources Agency to combat the biodiversity and climate crises by, among other things, establishing the California Biodiversity Collaborative and conserving at least 30% of the state’s lands and coastal waters by 2030. Existing law requires the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency to prepare and submit, on or before March 31, 2024, and annually thereafter, a report to the Legislature on the progress made in the prior calendar year toward achieving the goal to conserve 30% of California’s lands and coastal waters by 2030. Existing law provides that it is the goal of the state to conserve at least 30% of California’s lands and coastal waters by 2030, known as the 30x30 goal.
Existing law establishes the Equitable Outdoor Access Act, which sets forth the state’s commitment to ensuring all Californians can benefit from, and have meaningful access to, the state’s rich cultural and natural resources. Existing law declares that it is state policy, among other things, to ensure that all Californians have equitable opportunities to safe and affordable access to nature and access to the benefits of nature, and to prevent and minimize the intentional and unwarranted limitation of sustainable public access to public lands, where appropriate, including, but not limited to, local, regional, state, and federal parks, rivers, lakes, beaches, forests, mountain ranges, deserts, and other natural landscapes. Existing law requires specified state agencies to consider and incorporate, as appropriate, the state policy when revising, adopting, or establishing policies, regulations, or grant criteria, or making expenditures, as specified. Existing law requires all state agencies implementing the above-described state policy to do so in a manner consistent with the mission of their agency and that protects the health and safety of the public and conserves natural and cultural resources.
This bill would provide that, to advance and promote environmental, conservation, and public access policies and budget actions, the Governor’s office, state agencies, and the Legislature, when distributing resources, shall recognize the coequal goals and benefits of the 30x30 goal and the Outdoors for All initiative, and, to the extent practical, maximize investment in historically underserved urban communities consistent with those initiatives. The bill would encourage decisionmakers, when distributing resources to achieve the goals and benefits of the 30x30 goal and the Outdoors for All initiative, to consider factors that are unique to urban settings, including, among other things, higher land value acquisition and development costs per acre, the acute health needs of a local population due to historic lack of greenspace access and development externalities, local park needs assessment plans, current or impending loss of parks or greenspace as a result of state or federal infrastructure projects, and the availability of mobility options near a proposed land conservation site. The bill would encourage regulatory agencies, including the Department of Toxic Substances Control, to work with local communities to restore degraded lands that could contribute to a more equitable strategy for meeting the state’s environmental, conservation, and public access goals. The bill would require state funding agencies, including certain state conservancies and the Wildlife Conservation Board, to allow, to the extent consistent with the funding source, the funding program’s authorizing statutes, and the state’s goals, for urban nature-based projects on degraded lands to be eligible and competitive for state funds.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.
(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(1) Executive Order No. N-82-20 by Governor Gavin Newsom directs the Natural Resources Agency to combat the biodiversity and climate crises by, among other things, establishing the California Biodiversity Collaborative and conserving at least 30 percent of California’s lands and coastal waters by 2030, known as the 30x30 goal. The executive order directs the Natural Resources Agency to develop strategies to achieve this goal in a manner that, among other things, expands equitable outdoor access and recreation for all Californians. Senate Bill 337 (Chapter 392 of the Statutes of 2023) codifies the 30x30 goal.
(2) Hundreds of millions of dollars in General Fund allocations have been directed to the Wildlife Conservation Board, the Department of Conservation, and state conservancies, among others, to meet the 30x30 goal.
(3) Governor Newsom and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom are championing the Outdoors for All initiative under the Natural Resources Agency that, among other things, seeks to expand parks in communities with little outdoor space and supports and underwrites programs to connect people who lack access to green space, fostering a sense of belonging and stewardship of the state’s outdoors.
(4) The November 2023 Strategy of the Outdoors for All initiative, “Providing Equitable Access to Parks and Nature,” establishes the following six priorities to achieve the goal of outdoors for all:
(A) Establish spaces for people and nature to thrive.
(B) Foster belonging.
(C) Connect people and the outdoors.
(D) Cocreate with communities.
(E) Build equitable career pathways and a representative workforce.
(F) Align funding to achieve the Outdoors for All initiative.
(5) The County of Los Angeles adopted the 2022 Parks Needs Assessment Plus (PNA+) to form the basis for a 30x30 strategy for the county. PNA+ identifies environmental conservation opportunities in the County of Los Angeles, including both natural lands and the restoration of degraded lands, such as brownfields, that would provide increased access to open space in highly urbanized parts of the County of Los Angeles.
(6) PNA+ discovered that most of the available land for acquisition pursuant to the 30x30 goal was in the northern part of the County of Los Angeles, an area already rich in park and open-space resources as compared to the southern part of the County of Los Angeles, an area richer in diversity and more challenged economically, wherein the opportunities for 30x30 projects are confined to degraded and underutilized lands.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature, in order to promote equity in the allocation of resources and investments in nature-based solutions, particularly in California’s marginalized and historically underserved communities, that the Legislature, the Governor, and state agencies and departments charged with the distribution of state and federal funds creatively strive to reintroduce nature through land restoration and land healing interventions for the greening of California’s most nature-deficient communities.

SEC. 2.
Section 1006 is added to the Public Resources Code, immediately following Section 1003, to read:
1006.
(a) (1) To advance and promote environmental, conservation, and public access policies and budget actions, the Governor’s office, state agencies and state departments, and the Legislature, when distributing resources, shall recognize the coequal goals and benefits of the 30x30 goal, as defined in Section 71450, the Equitable Outdoor Access Act, as established pursuant to Section 1000, and the Outdoors for All initiative and, to the extent practical, maximize investment in historically underserved urban communities consistent with those initiatives.
(2) When distributing resources to achieve the goals and benefits of the 30x30 goal and the Outdoors for All initiative, decisionmakers are encouraged to consider factors that are unique to urban settings, including, but not limited to, higher land value acquisition and development costs per acre, the use and rehabilitation of degraded lands for conservation projects, the proximity to populations lacking park and greenspace access, the acute health needs of a local population due to historic lack of greenspace access and development externalities, local park needs assessment plans, current or impending loss of parks or greenspace as a result of state or federal infrastructure projects, and the availability of mobility options near a proposed land conservation site.
(b) Regulatory agencies, including, but not limited to, the Department of Toxic Substances Control, are encouraged to work with local communities to restore degraded lands that could contribute to a more equitable strategy for meeting the state’s environmental, conservation, and public access goals.
(c) State funding agencies, including, but not limited to, the Natural Resources Agency, the Department of Parks and Recreation, the conservancies established pursuant to Sections 31100, 32320, 32510, 32555, 32602, 32633, 33200, and 33501 of this code, Section 66906 of the Government Code, and the Wildlife Conservation Board, shall allow, to the extent consistent with the funding source, the funding program’s authorizing statutes, and the state’s goals, for urban nature-based projects on degraded lands to be eligible and competitive for state funds.