(a) The Recreational Trails Fund is hereby created. Moneys in the Recreational Trails Fund shall be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the department for competitive grants to cities, counties, districts, state and federal agencies, and nonprofit organizations with management responsibilities over public lands to acquire and develop recreational trails.
(b) The Controller shall promptly transfer all money received by the state from the federal government as allocations from the National Recreational Trails Trust Fund pursuant to the Steve Symms National Recreational Trails Fund Act of 1991 (P.L. 102-240) and deposited in the Federal Trust Fund, to the Recreational Trails Fund. The money in the Recreational Trails Fund shall be available to the department for expenditure, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for grants pursuant to subdivision (a), in accordance with the Steve Symms National Recreational Trails Fund Act of 1991. Seventy percent of the money received by the state from the federal government and transferred to the Recreational Trails Fund pursuant to this subdivision shall be available only for nonmotorized recreational trails with at least one-half of that amount available only for grants to cities, counties, districts, and nonprofit organizations for the acquisition and development of new nonmotorized recreational trails and the reconstruction or relocation of existing nonmotorized recreational trails.
(c) The department shall prepare and adopt criteria and procedures for evaluating applications for grants, which, at a minimum, shall include certification that the project is consistent with the applicant’s general plan or the equivalent planning document, complies with the California Environmental Quality Act (Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000)) and other environmental protection laws and regulations, and is not required as a mitigation measure as a condition for a permit or other entitlement. The department shall forward to the Director of Finance for inclusion in the Governor’s Budget of each fiscal year all projects that are recommended for funding and those projects shall be contained in the Budget Bill for that fiscal year.
(d) No grant shall be made from the Recreational Trails Fund to an applicant unless the applicant agrees to both of the following conditions:
(1) To maintain and operate the property acquired, developed, rehabilitated, or restored with the funds in perpetuity. With the approval of the department, the applicant or its successors in interest in the property may transfer the responsibility to maintain and operate the property in accordance with this section. In the case of lands not held in fee by the applicant (limited tenure projects), perpetuity shall be in accordance with the tenure or for the length of time sufficient to provide public benefits commensurate with the type and duration of interest in land held by the applicant.
(2) To use the property only for the purposes of the grant and to make no other use, sale, or other disposition or conversion of the property except as authorized by a specific act of the Legislature and the property shall be replaced with property of equivalent value and usefulness as determined by the department. The property acquired or developed may be transferred to another public agency if the successor agency assumes the obligations imposed under this chapter.
(e) All applicants for a grant pursuant to this section shall submit an application to the department for approval. Each application shall include in writing the conditions specified in paragraphs (1) and (2) of subdivision (d).
(Amended by Stats. 2006, Ch. 574, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 2007.)