(a) Not later than October 1, 1994, the commission shall prepare and adopt, by a majority vote of the membership of the commission, and thereafter review and maintain, a comprehensive long-term resource management plan for land uses within the primary zone of the delta. The resource management plan shall consist of the map of the primary zone and text or texts setting forth a description of the needs and goals for the delta and a statement of the policies, standards, and elements of the resource management plan.
(b) The resource management plan shall meet the following requirements:
(1) Protect and preserve the cultural values and economic vitality that reflect the history, natural heritage, and human resources of the delta.
(2) Conserve and protect the quality of renewable resources.
(3) Preserve and protect agricultural viability.
(4) Restore, improve, and manage levee systems by promoting strategies, including, but not limited to, methods and procedures which advance the adoption and implementation of coordinated and uniform standards among governmental agencies for the maintenance, repair, and construction of both public and private levees.
(5) Preserve and protect delta dependent fisheries and their habitat.
(6) Preserve and protect riparian and wetlands habitat, and promote and encourage a net increase in both the acreage and values of those resources on public lands and through voluntary cooperative arrangements with private property owners.
(7) Preserve and protect the water quality of the delta, both for instream purposes and for human use and consumption.
(8) Preserve and protect open-space and outdoor recreational opportunities.
(9) Preserve and protect private property interests from trespassing and vandalism.
(10) Preserve and protect opportunities for controlled public access and use of public lands and waterways consistent with the protection of natural resources and private property interests.
(11) Preserve, protect, and maintain navigation.
(12) Protect the delta from any development that results in any significant loss of habitat or agricultural land.
(13) Promote strategies for the funding, acquisition, and maintenance of voluntary cooperative arrangements, such as conservation easements, between property owners and conservation groups that protect wildlife habitat and agricultural land, while not impairing the integrity of levees.
(14) Permit water reservoir and habitat development that is compatible with other uses.
(c) The resource management plan shall not supersede the authority of local governments over areas within the secondary zone.
(d) To facilitate, in part, the requirements specified in paragraphs (8), (9), (10), and (11) of subdivision (b), the commission shall include in the resource management plan, in consultation with all law enforcement agencies having jurisdiction in the delta, a strategy for the implementation of a coordinated marine patrol system throughout the delta that will improve law enforcement and coordinate the use of resources by all jurisdictions to ensure an adequate level of public safety. The strategic plan shall identify resources to implement that coordination. The commission shall have no authority to abrogate the existing authority of any law enforcement agency.
(e) To the extent that any of the requirements specified in this section are in conflict, nothing in this division shall deny the right of the landowner to continue the agricultural use of the land.
(Amended by Stats. 1998, Ch. 584, Sec. 2.7. Effective January 1, 1999.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018