Sacramento – Legislation authored by Assemblywoman Lois Wolk (D-Davis) to strengthen the Delta Protection Commission passed the Assembly Natural Resources Committee yesterday. AB 2476, which passed committee with 7 Aye votes, will make changes to the Commission's membership, authority and funding sources.
“The Delta is the heart of the state. Just about everyone and everything in California is touched by the resources of the Delta in some form or another,” said Assemblywoman Wolk. “I introduced this bill to strengthen the Delta Protection Commission, to stimulate a dialogue and place the long term needs of the Delta and its resources front and center, moving beyond the short term profit motives driving the discussion today.” AB 2476 would make change the membership make-up of the commission and would expand the scope of commission's authority to provide clear direction and authority to comment or take action on any land use issue or development within the Secondary Zone. Commissioners would also have expanded authority in the orderly planning and historic preservation of the unincorporated Delta communities like Locke, Walnut Grove and Courtland. Additionally, a plan would be required to outline the effects on the primary zone of secondary zone land use changes. Mitigation fees would be collected at the local level and used by the commission or a nonprofit land trust or conservancy in pursuing agricultural and conservation easements to preserve in perpetuity the critical areas of the Delta. “The Delta Protection Commission was created in 1992 by the Legislature to protect the resources of the Delta for the people of California. But the political and physical landscape in and around the Delta has changed rapidly in the last twelve years. The Commission is ill-equipped to keep pace with all that is swirling around them,” said Wolk. “There is no other entity in State government charged with watching out for the overall health of the Delta,” she added. “We need a Delta Protection Commission that is up to the task. The Delta is our heart and we have only one.” Planning & Conservation League, Sierra Club, Delta Keeper, California Waterfowl Association and the Defenders of Wildlife testified in support of the bill, which was also supported by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the Defenders of Wildlife. AB 2476 was opposed by developer interests. The bill now goes to Appropriations committee for its next hearing.