Wolk bills for smart flood protection and land-use planning move forward

Bills strengthen flood protection planning, create standards and incentives

SACRAMENTO–Legislation by Assemblywoman Lois Wolk (D-Davis) to strengthen flood protection planning throughout the state passed from the Assembly Local Government Committee yesterday on a 5-2 vote.

Assembly Bill 5 is one of three bills in a flood protection package Wolk is carrying this session to close the disconnect between floodplain management and land use. AB 5 accomplishes this by setting standards for planning at the state and local government level, and by rewarding smart planning with funds from the flood bond approved by voters last November.

“My aim with AB 5 is to connect the need for better planning and flood protection requirements with the expenditures of these bond funds,” said Wolk, who championed efforts last session to pass meaningful flood protection legislation. “California voters authorized the expenditure of almost $5 billion of their tax dollars, expecting us to protect the thousands of Californians at risk from a catastrophic flood. They don’t want us to make the problem worse by allowing more people to be put in harm’s way with no plans in place to protect them.”

Wolk’s AB 162, which passed out of the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks, and Wildlife yesterday with a 9-4 vote, requires cities and counties in California to include flood risk in their general plans. AB 1452 sets priorities and establishes necessary criteria for cost-effective expenditure of the $5 billion flood bond approved by voters in November 2006. All three bills are currently in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

Witnesses speaking in support of AB 5 today included Jonas Minton, with the Planning and Conservation League, who called AB 5 “an important bill” tackling “not just the state’s financial responsibility when it comes to flooding, but its responsibility for public safety as well.

“In New Orleans, there was warning of Hurricane Katrina. There was time, and hundreds of thousands of people were able to evacuate,” said Minton, the former deputy director at the California Department of Water Resources, where he was responsible for the state’s floodplain management. “The kind of flooding that this bill addresses does not have that lead time. This kind of flooding could put people’s lives at risk within hours.”

“We need to have an integrated flood system,” said Joe Caves with the Nature Conservancy. “It is all one flood system. You need to have a statewide plan that local plans are integrated into. There isn’t a way to have piecemeal flood protection without having huge impacts on others.”

AB 5 is also supported by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, East Bay Municipal Utility District, Natural Resources Defense Council, The Nature Conservancy, Friends of the River, the City of Sacramento, American Planning Association, and Gray Panthers.