Amendments were taken on April 30 to authorize an oversight board to approve, as an enforceable obligation, the necessary matching funds to obtain state or federal grants to clean up the property. In the absence of available funds, the oversight board may also approve the clean-up of property to either maximize its value, or address an imminent health and safety condition.

Important to the League’s support of this bill was Sen. Pavley’s commitment to add into the measure at a later date the protections of the Polanco Act for successor agencies. She has temporarily held off including these provisions because another pending measure, AB 1235 (Hernández), applies the Polanco Act to successor agencies. Sen. Pavley has committed to add these provisions into SB 1335 should AB 1235 not move forward.

The Polanco Redevelopment Act (AB 3193; 1990) was part of the Community Redevelopment Law and was enacted to assist redevelopment agencies in clean-up brownfield properties in their redevelopment areas. The act instructed redevelopment agencies on the proper methods to clean up hazardous substances and provided immunity from liability for the redevelopment agency and future owners for sites cleaned up under an approved plan.

The League’s position letter is available on its website by typing “SB 1335” into the search box.