California State Lands Commission
From Beachapedia
Introduction
The State Lands Commission (SLC) has jurisdiction over all “sovereign lands,” or lands held in trust by the State of California, including State Reserved Lands and Public School Lands, as well as tidelands, submerged lands three miles off the coast, and water bottoms of various navigable waters and their tributaries.[1] The SLC has jurisdiction to dispose of or lease those lands, but must do so in accordance with California’s Common Law Public Trust Doctrine.[2]
State Lands Commission Background
The State Lands Act of 1938 created the State Lands Commission, and vested in it powers and jurisdiction of the (1) Division of State Lands and of the (2) Department of Finance as a successor to the Surveyor General and State Land Office.[3] Those powers include “the full authority, as provided by law, to administer, sell, lease or dispose of the public lands owned by [California] or under its control, including not only school lands but tidelands, submerged lands, swamp and overflowed lands, and beds of navigable rivers and lakes.”[4] The extent of the submerged lands covered is three miles offshore, per the Submerged Lands Act.[5] “The commission was further authorized to provide for the extraction of minerals and oil and gas from any or all of such lands.”[6]
Notes
- ↑ This overlaps with the Coastal Zone jurisdiction granted to the California Coastal Commission.
- ↑ http://www.slc.ca.gov/Reports/SEA_LEVEL_Report.pdf
- ↑ Cal. Pub. Res. Code § 6216(a) (2010).
- ↑ Cal. Pub. Res. Code §§ 6216(a), 6301.
- ↑ 43 U.S.C. § 1311(a) (2008); James v. State, 950 P.2d 1130, 1134 (Alaska 1997). “Coastal undersea lands were held in United States v. California, 332 U.S. 19, 67 S.Ct. 1658, 91 L.Ed. 1889 (1947), to belong to the United States. In 1953 Congress passed the Submerged Lands Act, which nullified the effect of that decision and ‘recognized, confirmed, established, and vested in, and assigned to the respective States’ title to submerged lands. 43 U.S.C. § 1311(a) (1994). Under the Submerged Lands Act a state receives title to submerged lands unless the United States has ‘expressly retained’ them. 43 U.S.C. § 1313(a) (1994).” Id.
- ↑ § 6216(a)