Chapter 5. Acquisition, Improvement Or Maintenance Of Lands For Public Beaches of California Harbors And Navigation Code >> Division 8. >> Part 2. >> Chapter 5.

Any harbor improvement district organized and existing pursuant to this part may purchase, lease or obtain by gift lands for public beaches located within the boundaries of the district and may hold, improve or maintain such lands. Any and all such acquisition, improvement or maintenance as is authorized herein shall be accomplished and carried out in accordance with the procedure and in the manner hereinafter provided in this chapter, except that nothing in this chapter shall affect state-owned tidelands and submerged lands or the jurisdiction of the State Lands Commission over tidelands and submerged lands.

The board of supervisors of any county in which a district is situated may direct the harbor commission, appointed pursuant to Section 5902, to prepare surveys for the acquisition, improvement or maintenance of such lands as is herein authorized, prepare plans therefor and estimates of cost thereof, and to report to the board of supervisors thereon, with its recommendations covering the necessity, advantages and benefits to be derived by the acquisition, improvement or maintenance of such lands as public beaches.

Upon receiving the report and recommendation of the harbor commission, the board shall fix a date for hearing on the report to consider and determine the feasibility of the project or projects submitted. The hearing shall be held not more than 30 days nor less than 20 days after the filing of the report, and the board shall cause notice of the fact that the report has been filed and of the date fixed for the hearing to be published by at least two publications in a newspaper published within the district.

The hearing, investigation, determination and findings of the board of supervisors shall be conducted and made in accordance with the provisions of Sections 5835 to 5841, inclusive, of the Harbors and Navigations Code which sections are incorporated herein to the extent that they are not inconsistent with the provisions of this chapter.

Upon final hearing, if the board finds that the lands considered in the commission's report can be acquired, improved or maintained as generally described in the report and recommendation of the harbor commission at a cost not disproportionate to the benefits to be derived from the proposed project, the board may order the acquisition, improvement or maintenance of the lands considered in the commission's report in accordance with the board's findings.

For the purpose of financing the acquisition, improvement or maintenance of such lands as is authorized herein, the board may issue bonds, borrow money, incur indebtedness and levy taxes, all in the same manner and to the same extent as in the improvement, development, protection or maintenance of the harbor for which the district was originally formed, and shall in all other respects have the same general powers and duties with respect to the acquisition, improvement or maintenance of such lands as it has with respect to the original harbor for which the district was formed. The board may issue no bonds hereunder unless the incurring of the bonded indebtedness for the acquisition, improvement or maintenance of such lands shall first have been approved at an election held in the manner provided in Article 3, (commencing with Section 5859) Chapter 1, Part 2, Division 8 of this code, and pursuant to the provisions of that article with reference to the incurring of bonded indebtedness.