AB1548 - Conservation: the Monterey Bay Area Stewardship Authority.

Amended IN Assembly April 15, 2026 Amended IN Assembly April 06, 2026 Amended IN Assembly March 09, 2026 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Assembly Bill No. 1548 Introduced by Assembly Member Pellerin (Coauthor: Assembly Member Addis) January 07, 2026 An act to add Title 7.27 (commencing with Section 66710) to the Government Code, relating to conservation. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 1548, as amended, Pellerin. Conservation: the Monterey Bay Area Stewardship Authority. Existing law establishes various entities for specified purposes over specific geographic areas of the state, including the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority and California Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, among others. This bill would establish the Monterey Bay Area Stewardship Authority, a regional entity with jurisdiction extending throughout the Monterey Bay region, as defined. The bill would provide that the purpose of the authority is to raise and allocate public and private funds for restoring, enhancing, protecting, engaging in long-term stewardship, and improving access for the enjoyment of natural and working lands, as defined, in the Counties of Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz, as specified. The bill would establish a 9-member governing board to govern the authority that consists of county board of supervisors, city officials, and public members of these counties, as specified. The bill would require the board to, among other things, establish policies for the operation of the authority, and convene an advisory committee to assist and advise the board in carrying out its functions. The bill would authorize the authority to award grants to public and private entities for eligible projects, including projects that restore, protect, enhance, or maintain natural, working, or open space lands in the Counties of Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz, as specified. The bill would also authorize the authority to, among other things, levy a benefit assessment, special tax, or property related fee, apply for and receive grants from federal and state agencies, solicit and accept gifts, fees, grants, and allocations from public and private entities, issue revenue bonds, incur general bond indebtedness, and enter into joint powers agreements, as provided. By imposing additional duties on local governmental agencies relating to the membership of the authority’s governing board, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Counties of Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above. Digest Key Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: YES Bill Text The people of the State of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. Title 7.27 (commencing with Section 66710) is added to the Government Code, to read: TITLE 7.27. Monterey Bay Area Stewardship Authority Act CHAPTER 1. Title, Findings, and Declarations 66710. This title shall be known, and may be cited, as the Monterey Bay Area Stewardship Authority Act. 66711. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (a) The Monterey Bay region covers an area of 3,100,000 acres and represents one of California’s most ecologically and culturally significant landscapes. The Monterey Bay region includes some of the state’s most iconic places, including Big Sur, the beaches bordering the Monterey Bay and the Santa Cruz North Coast, the coastal redwood forests in Big Basin Redwoods State Park and the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park, the verdant and historic Salinas and Pajaro Valleys, the rangelands in the County of San Benito, and Pinnacles National Park. The Monterey Bay region is home to immense biodiversity and vital habitats that support native species such as California condors, steelhead, salmon, endemic plants, and critical wildlife corridors and nesting sites. (b) Across the Monterey Bay region, California Native American tribes have long led in the stewardship of land and water through cultural practices, governance, and place-based knowledge. Today, as climate impacts accelerate, tribal leadership remains foundational. Agricultural landowners and stewards, conservation organizations, and local governments continue to play vital leadership roles in sustaining the region’s natural and working landscapes. Together, these efforts reflect a growing recognition that the region’s future depends on strengthened cross-sector collaboration to sustain both working lands and ecological systems through long-term care for land and water. (c) The Monterey Bay region is shaped by rivers, floodplains, and some of the state’s largest wetland systems, including the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve and the Watsonville Slough Ecological Reserve. The region’s major rivers include the San Lorenzo River, which drains from the Santa Cruz Mountains; the Pajaro River, which directly links the region; and the Salinas and Carmel Rivers. These waterways, along with the surrounding mountains, valleys, and wetlands of the Santa Cruz Mountains, the Gabilan Range, the Diablo Range, and the Santa Lucia Range, support one of the world’s most diverse and productive agricultural economies, where farmers and ranchers manage millions of acres and play a key role in land stewardship and connectivity that benefits both the region’s economy and ecological health. The preservation of agricultural lands in active production is vital to the region’s resilience and long-term prosperity. (d) The Monterey Bay region has maintained its global presence by committing to an economy that sustains abundant open space, agricultural lands, and natural habitats. Many growers in the region have been early adopters of climate-smart practices that improve soil health, conserve water, and enhance resilience, often while keeping land in production and sustaining livelihoods. Together, the agriculture and tourism economies of the region are valued at ten billion five hundred million dollars ($10,500,000,000). The 6,094 square mile Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, which was designated on September 18, 1992, is one of the largest marine sanctuaries in the world, and one of California’s most visited coastal areas, offering residents and visitors alike a vital connection to the ocean. Across the Monterey Bay region, more than two dozen state parks and one state recreational area further contribute to the region’s rich landscape, drawing Californians and international visitors year-round. (e) California Native American tribes, indigenous communities, and indigenous-led organizations are leading efforts, often in partnership with agricultural landowners, public and private landowners, state government, local government, and nongovernmental and conservation organizations to restore culturally significant lands, reintroduce traditional beneficial fire practices, and establish voluntary conservation efforts that support access to, and stewardship of, ancestral homelands. These cultures, and the people who have stewarded them for generations despite documented genocide and forced displacement, are regaining access and stewardship rights to culturally important lands for traditional lifeways and stewardship. Through tribal-led land trusts, comanagement agreements, and community-led planning, indigenous leadership is reshaping conservation models. These efforts reflect a growing recognition of the importance of integrating indigenous knowledge systems and governance into regional conservation and climate solutions. (f) The Monterey Bay region constitute a region that relies heavily on local water sources, including groundwater and surface water. The region maintains its own water storage reservoirs and distribution facilities with limited reliance on state or federal systems. The region also maintains largely independent flood management systems. State-approved groundwater sustainability plans have been completed throughout the Monterey Bay region. (g) Recent statewide goals and policies have reinforced the conservation value of landscapes in the Monterey Bay region. In alignment with the state’s goal of protecting 30 percent of the state’s lands, the Monterey Bay region has conserved 514,700 acres of land as of 2024. Contracts and easements executed pursuant to the Williamson Act (Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 51200) of Part 1 of Division 1 of Title 5) across farms and rangelands further add to the stewarded landscapes across the Monterey Bay region. (h) In keeping with the state’s focus on emissions reductions, the 2024 Monterey Bay Natural and Working Lands Climate Mitigation and Resiliency Study conducted by the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments identified land stewardship and management strategies across the region that could reduce emissions by up to four hundred thousand (400,000) metric tons in alignment with California’s statewide targets. Stewardship, maintenance, and protection of natural and working lands are central to the state’s climate strategy. (i) Underlying all of the communities in the Monterey Bay region is a century-old commitment to maintaining rural landscapes and vibrant economies based on natural lands, including agriculture, hospitality, recreation, and preservation of open space and habitats that link together the iconic landscapes of the region. Farming and ranching are more than economic engines; they reflect a way of life deeply tied to the land and the rural character of the region. Pressures on this landscape exist as the balance of historic commitments to open spaces and working lands run up against housing needs and economic development in the region. Additional pressure and threats arise from the effects of climate change, including drought, catastrophic wildfire, loss of biodiversity due to habitat fragmentation and development pressures, flooding, increased temperatures, and rising sea levels. (j) The landscapes of the Monterey Bay region provide direct benefits to the people of the state in the form of recreation, food supply, clean air and water, ocean health, public health, and carbon sequestration. The region’s natural and working lands are critical to community well-being and climate resilience. However, access to these public benefits is uneven. Rural, agricultural, and indigenous communities across the region have faced longstanding environmental injustices, including contaminated drinking water, pesticide exposure, air pollution, and underinvestment in infrastructure and green spaces. These communities also continue to experience disproportionate climate impacts, including water insecurity, extreme heat, and flooding, alongside limited access to climate adaptation strategies and long-term conservation resources. (k) The Monterey Bay region seeks to establish regional mechanisms to enable coordination among governmental, tribal, and nongovernmental entities to generate and allocate resources for open space protection, habitat restoration, and the long-term maintenance and stewardship of recreational lands, private working lands, floodplain and watershed lands, and to secure opportunities for the improvement of these lands and waters. These efforts are intended to address longstanding gaps in access to climate adaptation resources, infrastructure, and green space, particularly for rural and indigenous communities. A regional authority can help overcome these barriers by expanding and aligning resources, strengthening partnerships, and supporting coordinated implementation strategies. (l) In addition to securing the ecological and community benefits of conserved lands over time, the Monterey Bay region has an opportunity to support and expand a local conservation workforce rooted in land stewardship, farming and ranching, science, and ecological restoration. Sustaining and growing jobs in these sectors is a vital outcome of coordinated and effective regional investment. (m) Effective conservation and climate resilience in the Monterey Bay region relies on the sustained capacity of local, state, and federal governments, agricultural producers and landowners, California Native American tribes, indigenous communities, nongovernmental organizations, and community-based organizations. The Monterey Bay region benefits from decades-long partnerships that have delivered meaningful outcomes across the region. However, the Monterey Bay region could become even more effective by proactively establishing a centralized authority to expand funding opportunities, coordinate responses to state goals and mandates, and reduce reliance on variable state and federal funding cycles. This added stability would strengthen the region’s long-term planning and position the region as a more ready and reliable partner for future investment. (n) It is in the public interest to establish the Monterey Bay Area Stewardship Authority as a regional entity to raise and allocate public and private funds for purposes of restoring, enhancing, protecting, engaging in long-term stewardship, and improving access for the public enjoyment of natural and working lands in the Monterey Bay region and along the region’s shoreline. (o) It is the intent of the Legislature that the Monterey Bay Area Stewardship Authority’s activities complement and not conflict with local housing elements adopted pursuant to Article 10.6 (commencing with Section 65580) of Chapter 3 of Division 1 of Title 7, and support a balanced approach that sustains working and natural lands while recognizing the importance of meeting state and local housing obligations. CHAPTER 2. Definitions 66712. For purposes of this title, unless the context requires otherwise, the following definitions apply: (a) “Authority” means the Monterey Bay Area Stewardship Authority established pursuant to Section 66713. (b) “Board” means the governing board of the Monterey Bay Area Stewardship Authority established pursuant to Section 66715. (c) “Local government” means a county, city, special district, or other local or regional governmental entity of the Monterey Bay region. (d) “Monterey Bay region” or “region” means the Counties of Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz. (e) “Natural lands” has the same meaning as set forth in Section 9001.5 of the Public Resources Code. (f) “Public member” means a board member described in paragraph (7) of subdivision (a) of Section 66715. (g) “Working lands” has the same meaning as set forth in Section 9001.5 of the Public Resources Code. CHAPTER 3. Monterey Bay A [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]