Section 1799 Of Chapter 7.9. Conservation Bank And Mitigation Bank Applications And Fees From California Fish And Game Code >> Division 2. >> Chapter 7.9.
1799
. (a) Until the department has approved a bank, in writing,
and, if applicable, a conservation easement has been recorded on the
site, no bank shall be operative, vested, or final, nor bank credits
issued. No amendment to an approved bank shall be effective without
the written approval of the department.
(b) Following approval of a final bank agreement package and
establishment of a bank, the department shall conduct compliance
review activities as provided in the approved bank enabling
instrument.
(c) (1) The department shall establish and maintain a database
that allows bank sponsors to accurately update and add information
about mitigation and conservation banks. This data shall be available
on the department's Internet Web site or accessible by a link from
the department's Internet Web site. The available information shall
include, but is not limited to, the total number of each type of bank
credit, the types of credits sold or obligated, the number of
credits sold or obligated, the number of credits applied, the balance
of each type of credit remaining, the status of the species and
habitat at the bank, links to the bank's long-term management plans,
and links to the complete annual monitoring reports required by
departmental policy.
(2) Information contained in the database created pursuant to
former Chapter 9 (commencing with Section 1850) on January 1, 2011,
shall be incorporated into the database established pursuant to
paragraph (1).
(d) By January 1, 2014, and annually thereafter, the department
shall provide a report to the Legislature. The report shall include
the following information based on data from the previous calendar
year:
(1) Number of new bank applications, prospectuses, bank agreement
packages, and amendments received.
(2) Number of bank applications approved, rejected because not
complete, rejected because not acceptable, and withdrawn.
(3) Name of new or existing bank, geographic location, number of
acres, number of credits approved for each habitat type or species,
and number of credits sold.
(4) An accounting of fees collected pursuant to this chapter.
(5) A statement of whether or not the timelines for bank review in
this chapter were met.
(6) Other information determined by the department to be relevant
in assessing the effectiveness of the department's mitigation and
conservation banking program.
(e) (1) The department shall collect fees to pay for all or a
portion of the department's bank implementation and compliance costs.
(2) The department shall collect a total payment of sixty thousand
($60,000) per bank, apportioned by an amount that equals the ratio
of the number of credits released to the total number of credits in
the bank, and shall be identified in the bank enabling instrument.
Payments shall be due following each credit release no later than the
due date for the submission of the bank's annual report. The
payments shall be submitted following each credit release and no
later than the time of the submission of the bank's annual report.
The department may require the bank to cease selling credits and may
stop credit releases until these fees are paid in full. The
department shall assess a penalty of 10 percent of the amount of fees
due if there is a failure to remit the amount payable when due.