SECTIONS 5095-5095.6 - California Statutes

PUBLIC RESOURCES CODE

SECTION 5095-5095.6

5095. This chapter shall be known, and may be cited, as the State
Urban Parks and Healthy Communities Act.

5095.1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) Parks and recreation provide opportunities for building strong
communities and promote ethnic and cultural harmony.
(b) The state parks system and the network of community and
regional parks, along with park professionals, are in a unique
position to promote educational, recreational, and community services
that foster partnerships with schools, nonprofit organizations, and
other government organizations that serve as a foundation for the
healthy development of our communities.
(c) California's population is growing increasingly diverse and it
is incumbent upon state and local governments, working with local
education entities, to develop and integrate programs and educational
curriculum that take full advantage of the state's natural environs.
(d) Today, many of our communities are in distress and face
increasingly complex problems of poverty, race relations,
environmental concerns, crime, and inadequate education facilities.
These problems are exacerbated by the lack of communication,
collaboration, and services in our inner cities. More and more local
agencies, along with nonprofit community-based organizations, are
called upon to provide recreation, after school programs, and
community services to meet these growing problems.
(e) Most state, community, and regional parks play a role in
educating the public about our cultural diversity, historical roots,
biological networks, and ecological systems. To do this effectively,
these entities need to identify and integrate themes within our state
and local parks systems that are relevant to urban communities and,
to the extent possible, work with local education agencies to better
define those themes and provide increased opportunities for children
to access California's park network as a "living classroom."
(f) There are numerous examples across the state where
collaborative efforts on behalf of state, community, and regional
parks working in conjunction with community-based organizations and
local education entities have developed programs, providing children
with exemplary outdoor educational experiences.
(g) Often, inner city and minority youth populations lack access
to recreational opportunities.
(h) Recreational and athletic activities have served to break down
color barriers in various communities and allowed individuals such
as Tiger Woods and Venus Williams to blaze new cultural and societal
trails, serving as positive role models for urbanized youth
throughout the nation.
(i) In addition, many urban areas throughout the state lack the
financial means or availability of property to acquire and develop
parks and recreation areas and facilities, particularly in the
neighborhoods that are currently least served in this area.
(j) To promote a greater sense of responsibility toward new parks
and recreation areas and facilities, it is vital to encourage
community participation in the development of new parks and
recreation areas and facilities, which will help keep them clean and
safe and enhance community pride and sustain neighborhood vitality.
(k) Recreation, team sports, and games build self-esteem,
confidence, social harmony, independent thinking, self-discipline,
sportsmanship, and health and help to develop skills in conflict
resolution.

5095.2. As used in this chapter, the following terms have the
following meanings:
(a) "Active recreational purpose" means an activity that requires
athletic fields, courts, gymnasiums, or other recreational venues for
youth soccer, baseball, football, basketball, tennis, or swimming,
or any activity the department identifies as meeting this definition.
(b) "Department" means the Department of Parks and Recreation.
(c) "Director" means the Director of Parks and Recreation.
(d) "Facility" includes a place for organized team sports, outdoor
recreation, permanent play structures, and multipurpose structures
designed to meet the special recreational, educational, vocational,
and social needs of youth. "Facility" also includes the acquisition
of properties or development of venues for the furtherance of the
purposes of Section 5095.4 where existing state conservancies or
state, community, or regional parks are not readily accessible.
(e) "Fund" means the State Urban Parks and Healthy Communities
Fund.
(f) "Nonurbanized local agency" means any city, county, or
district that qualifies as a nonurbanized area as defined in
subdivision (e) of Section 5621 and that is eligible for grant
funding pursuant to Chapter 3.2 (commencing with Section 5620).
(g) "Special district" means a regional park district, regional
park and open-space district, or regional open-space district formed
pursuant to Article 3 (commencing with Section 5500) of Chapter 3, or
a recreation and park district formed pursuant to Chapter 4
(commencing with Section 5780).
(h) "State agency" includes the Department of Parks and Recreation
and the state conservancies in existence on the effective date of
the act adding this section during the 2001 portion of the 2001-02
Regular Session.
(i) "Urbanized or heavily urbanized local agencies" include
cities, counties, or a city and county, or special districts as
determined by the Department of Finance according to the latest
verifiable census data pursuant to subdivisions (c) and (d) of
Section 5621.

5095.3. There is hereby created, in the State Treasury, the State
Urban Parks and Healthy Communities Fund. The department shall expend
moneys from this fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to
provide grants to state agencies, including state conservancies in
existence on January 1, 2002, urbanized or heavily urbanized local
agencies, and community-based organizations, in accordance with
Sections 5095.4 and 5095.5. Funds necessary to administer this
chapter shall be appropriated in the annual Budget Act.

5095.4. (a) The director, in consultation with the State Department
of Education, shall develop a competitive grant program to assist
state parks, state conservancies in existence as of January 1, 2003,
urbanized and heavily urbanized local agencies, and community-based
organizations within those jurisdictions, working in collaboration,
to provide outdoor educational opportunities to children.
(1) Applicant entities shall provide a 25-percent matching
contribution in community resources. The matching contributions may
be in the form of money, including funds from other state or local
assistance programs, gifts of real property, equipment, and
consumable supplies, volunteer services, free or reduced-cost use of
land, facilities, or equipment, and bequests and income from wills,
estates, and trusts. The department may establish findings for
hardships to waive the matching requirement when an applicant cannot
meet the requirement.
(2) The department may give additional consideration to applicant
entities collaborating with other entities, including, but not
limited to, school districts, faith-based groups and others providing
outreach programs to identify and attract urbanized youth most in
need of organized, constructive recreational activities.
(b) The department shall make one-third of any funds appropriated
for the purposes of this chapter available to give special priority
to providing increased access for elementary schoolage children in
grades 2 to 8, inclusive, to conservancy or state, community, and
regional park properties and, in addition, shall give priority, in
awarding a grant pursuant to this section, to all of the following:
(1) Programs that use curriculum tied to the science content
standards and science framework adopted by the State Board of
Education.
(2) Applicants that serve children with family incomes below the
statewide average, based on the most recent figures computed and
established by the Department of Finance.
(3) Applicants that provide access to children who are underserved
or lack access to parks or other outdoor venues suitable to conduct
appropriate environmental education instruction.
(4) Applicants that have developed working collaboratives to
develop environmental education partnerships.
(5) Applicants working in collaboration with local educational
agencies to identify those children lacking adequate opportunities to
access outdoor environmental education curriculum or innovative or
alternative recreation programming.
(c) The amount of a grant awarded pursuant to this section may not
be less than twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) or more than two
hundred thousand dollars ($200,000). A grant may be expended for any
of the following purposes:
(1) Staffing that is directly associated with the programming.
(2) Staff training or development directly associated with the
programming.
(3) Costs associated with transporting youth between a community
or school and the proposed environmental education venue.
(4) Medical insurance for the participants, only if the insurance
is a requirement pursuant to the activity.
(5) Operational costs, such as the rental equipment, food, and
supplies.
(6) Applicants that can demonstrate that the administrative costs
associated with this activity will not exceed more than 7.5 percent
of the amount of the grant.
(d) The department may gather information from the applicants as
to the effectiveness of these programs in meeting program objectives.
The department shall summarize this information and report to the
appropriate budget and fiscal committees of both houses of the
Legislature as to the number of children served, the educational
objectives met, and the level of demand.
(e) Applicant agencies may enter into contracts with other public
agencies or entities to provide unique interpretive skills or to
present authentic, curriculum-based programs in units of conservancy
properties or state, community, or regional park systems for services
not otherwise provided. The purpose of this subdivision is to
authorize the applicants to provide programming services, equipment,
and materials that assist in the curriculum program or provide
educational activities that assist in the presentation of cultural
traditions.

5095.5. (a) The department shall allocate two-thirds of any funds
appropriated for the purposes of this chapter to provide grants to
urbanized or heavily urbanized local agencies or community-based
organizations within these jurisdictions for the acquisition and
development of properties for active recreational purposes, as
defined. Eligible projects shall meet all of the following criteria:
(1) The amount of the grant applied for, together with any
matching contribution, shall meet all of the cost of acquiring and
developing the project, and when construction of the project is
completed, the new urban park or facility shall have a management
plan and demonstrate to the satisfaction of the department that the
applicant agencies have sufficient means to ensure that the park or
facility shall remain open and accessible to the public.
(2) The application includes a commitment for a matching
contribution. The matching contributions may be in the form of money,
including funds from other state or local assistance programs, gifts
of real property, equipment, and consumable supplies, volunteer
services, free or reduced-cost use of land, facilities, or equipment,
and bequests and income from wills, estates, and trusts. The
department may establish findings for hardships to waive the matching
requirement when an applicant cannot meet the requirement.
(3) To the extent practicable, the project is a joint-use project
between two or more agencies that share responsibility for ownership,
development, or maintenance, or both, of the project.
(b) The department shall adopt guidelines to amplify or clarify
the criteria specified in Section 5095.4 or this section, and may
adopt additional criteria, to supplement those criteria.
(c) The department may develop a procedural guide for the
administration of this chapter and the guidance of applicants.
(d) The department shall solicit written comments and hold public
hearings at convenient locations throughout the state on any
regulations, guidelines, or the procedural guide proposed to be
adopted or developed pursuant to this section.
(e) The department shall adopt guidelines to implement this
chapter.
(f) Any regulation, guideline, or procedural guide adopted or
developed pursuant to this chapter is not subject to the review or
approval of the Office of Administrative Law or to any other
requirement of Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1
of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code.
(g) A grant received pursuant to this section may be expended to
acquire the fee title or other interest in real property. If an
application proposes to acquire less than fee title, the applicant
shall demonstrate in the application, to the satisfaction of the
department, that the proposed project will provide public benefits
that are commensurate with the type and duration of the interest in
real property to be acquired.
(h) With the consent of an urbanized or heavily urbanized local
agency, any eligible nonprofit organization that is tax exempt
pursuant to Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code may apply
for a grant on behalf of an entity for the purposes of either Section
5095.4 or this section. The application shall include a copy of any
contract between the local agency and the nonprofit organization and
the resolution or other authorization of consent. The contract shall
specify arrangements for the long-term management and operation of
the urban park or recreation area commensurate with the amount of the
grant, as determined by the department.
(i) Every applicant for a grant pursuant to this section and the
entity that will operate and maintain the property, if that entity is
different than the applicant, shall agree to comply with all of the
following requirements:
(1) To operate and maintain the property developed pursuant to
this chapter so that it is usable by residents of the affected area.
With the approval of the department, the grant recipient, or its
successor in interest in the property, may transfer its property
interest and the responsibility to operate and maintain the property,
in accordance with the terms of the grant and any applicable law, to
a public agency or nonprofit organization that is able to operate
and maintain the property in perpetuity. Any attempt to make a
transfer in violation of this subdivision is void.
(2) To use the property only for the purposes for which the grant
was made and to make no other use or sale or other disposition of the
property, except as authorized by statute. If the use of the
property is changed to a use that is not permitted by the terms of
the grant, or if the property is sold or otherwise disposed of, the
grant recipient shall reimburse the department an amount equal to the
amount of the grant, the fair market value of the land and any
improvements constructed with the grant, or the proceeds from the
sale or other disposition, whichever amount is greater. If the
property that is sold or otherwise disposed of is less than the
entire interest in the property funded with the grant, the grant
recipient shall reimburse the department an amount equal to either
the proceeds from the sale or other disposition of the interest or
the fair market value of the interest sold or otherwise disposed of,
whichever amount is greater.
(3) In lieu of seeking reimbursement pursuant to paragraph (2),
the department may impose restrictions on the use of public park
property identical to the requirements for the preservation of public
parks set forth in the Public Park Preservation Act of 1971 (Chapter
2.5 (commencing with Section 5400)) with respect to any property
used, sold, or otherwise disposed of in a manner not permitted by the
terms of the grant.
(j) The recipient of a grant pursuant to this chapter may use the
grant funds to pay for any portion of the cost of cleaning up,
removing, or remediating any toxic materials or hazardous substances,
if the amount used for cleanup, removal, or remediation does not
exceed 20 percent of the grant allocated to the project.
(k) The amount allocated pursuant to this chapter shall be roughly
divided 60 percent to the southern portion of the state (south of
the Tehachapi Mountains) and 40 percent to the northern portion.
(l) Recognizing that some rural areas of the state have
significant deficiencies of park facilities for active recreational
purposes, the department shall consider allocating two hundred fifty
thousand dollars ($250,000) pursuant to this section to nonurbanized
local agencies. In awarding these grants, the department shall apply
the same guidelines as those established for awarding a grant to a
nonurbanized area pursuant to subdivision (e) of Section 5621.
(m) After all grants authorized under this chapter have been
awarded, the department shall report to the Budget Committee of the
Assembly and the Budget and Fiscal Review Committee of the Senate on
the number of grant applications received, the total amount of funds
sought by applicants, and the number of eligible applications that
were not funded.
(n) Nothing in this section is intended to prohibit
community-based organizations from acting in partnership with
organizations that do not have tax-exempt status as a nonprofit
organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the federal Internal Revenue
Code.

5095.6. (a) This chapter shall be implemented only upon
appropriation of sufficient funds to the department for that purpose.
(b) Notwithstanding any other provision, all funds that are
appropriated to the department pursuant to this chapter shall be
encumbered within three years of the date of that appropriation and
expended within eight years of the date of that appropriation.
(c) Any grants to state or local agencies or nonprofit
organizations or community groups pursuant to this chapter, on or
after January 1, 2003, shall be contingent upon a future
appropriation in the annual Budget Act.