SAN DIEGO — Two new bills just signed by Governor Gavin Newsom are aimed at helping city governments prepare and prevent major flooding like what happened Jan. 22 in San Diego.
"It is a no brainer to make it easy and simple for routine maintenance that the city wants to do, to allow them to do it as quickly as possible, that's what these bills are about," said Assemblymember David Alvarez.
Assembly Bill 3227 gets rid of some of the state environmental delays and helps expedite regular maintenance of storm water channels. The bill applies to channels that are fully concrete or have less than a 100-year storm capacity to ensure they are adequately maintained ahead of significant weather events.
According to the city, this applies to nearly all of the channels in San Diego.
"As a result of Assemblymember Alvarez's good work, we now have the ability to cut approval time for [California Environmental Quality Act] review for these kinds of projects for what used to be 1-2 years, can now be completed in just a matter of months," said Mayor Todd Gloria.
Assembly Bill 2501 allows for expedited review of permit applications for critical infrastructure projects addressing storm channel maintenance, according to Assemblymember Alvarez's office.