Chapter 3. District Powers of California Harbors And Navigation Code >> Division 8. >> Part 4. >> Chapter 3.

A district created under this part is a public corporation created for municipal purposes.

It has perpetual succession.

It may sue and be sued.

It may adopt a seal.

It may take by grant, purchase, gift, devise or lease or otherwise acquire and hold and enjoy, and lease or dispose of, real and personal property of every kind, within or without the district, necessary to the full or convenient exercise of its powers.

A district may acquire, purchase, takeover, construct, maintain, operate, develop, and regulate wharves, docks, warehouses, grain elevators, bunkering facilities, belt railroads, floating plants, lighterage, lands, towage facilities, and any and all other facilities, aids, or public personnel, incident to, or necessary for, the operation and development of ports, waterways, and the district.

It may exercise the right of eminent domain to take any property necessary to carry out any of the objects or purposes of the district.

It may incur indebtedness and issue bonds or other evidence of indebtedness for its purposes. If any bonds issued for port improvement purposes by any part of a district prior to its creation are refunded, the refunding bonds are a lien only upon the lands upon which the original bonds were a lien at the time of the creation of the district.

It may levy and collect or cause to be levied or collected taxes as in this part provided.

It has exclusive jurisdiction over, and it may provide for and supervise pilots and the pilotage of sea-going vessels from the end of jurisdiction of existing pilot authorities to points lying upon any navigable waterway project of the United States, entering the district.

It may contribute money to the Federal or the State Government or to the county in which it is located or to any city within the district, for the purpose of defraying the whole or a portion of the cost and expenses of work and improvement to be performed, either within or without the territorial limits of the district, by the Federal, State, county or city government, in improving rivers, streams, or in doing other work, when such work will improve navigation and commerce, in or to the navigable waters in the district.

A district may do any work or make any improvement within or without the territorial limits of the district, which will aid in the development or the improvement of navigation or commerce to or within the district.

A district may enact necessary police regulations providing for control of any waterway project of the United States, entering the district, and adopt rules and regulations concerning the construction of wharves, docks, buildings, and improvements of all types, contemplated.

(a) This section is applicable only within the Santa Cruz Port District. The Legislature finds and declares that this section is necessary to meet a serious danger to the public safety within the Santa Cruz Port District caused by surfriding activities within the harbor entrance area.
  (b) No person shall swim or surfride, or use any watercraft or device to surfride, on ocean waters within a harbor entrance area, as prescribed by the Santa Cruz Port District by ordinance.
  (c) For the purposes of this section, "surfride" includes traveling to or from a surfriding staging area and activities in the staging area which are preparatory or preliminary to, or connected with, riding the surf.
  (d) Every person who violates this section is guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punished by a fine not to exceed five hundred dollars ($500).

A district may provide for the opening and laying out of streets leading to the waterfront.

A district may regulate and control the construction, maintenance, and operation or use of all wharves, warehouses, structures, improvements, or appliances used in connection with or for the accommodation and promotion of transportation or navigation on any improvement project of the federal government applying to the main waterway entering the district and on other navigable streams improved or unimproved which lie within the district, and it may make and enforce necessary police and sanitary regulations in connection therewith.

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any port district which has received, or is receiving, money pursuant to the provisions of Division 1 (commencing with Section 30) for the construction or improvement of a small craft harbor or facilities in connection therewith, may enter into a lease of any portion of its land and water area which has been freed from the public trust for commerce, navigation, or fisheries for the development of marine-oriented apartments and townhouses. Such lease may authorize the lessee to sublet individual dwelling units, but such lease shall not exceed a term of 50 years, after which time any improvements constructed pursuant to the lease shall revert to the district. Land rental units constructed pursuant to such lease shall be available to all persons on equal and reasonable terms. Any such lease shall contain express provisions requiring the lessee to provide for reasonable public access across the leased lands to adjacent port water areas. Nothing in this section shall be construed to allow the use of tide or submerged lands in any manner inconsistent with the California Constitution or with the public trust for commerce, navigation, or fisheries. Any lease of real property so freed from the public trust which is proposed to be let under the provisions of this section shall first be submitted to the State Lands Commission and to the Attorney General for review and approval, and no such lease shall be let unless the State Lands Commission and the Attorney General find that the proposed lease would be in the public interest and would not be in violation of any provision of the California Constitution or of any term of a grant of tidelands or submerged lands and would not be inconsistent with the public trust for commerce, navigation, or fisheries.

It may fix, regulate and collect the rates or charges for the use of wharves, warehouses, vessels, railroads and other facilities, structures and appliances owned, controlled or operated by it, in connection with or for the promotion and accommodation of transportation or navigation, and it may also fix, regulate and collect the rates or charges for pilotage and towage.

It may lay out, plan and establish the general plan and system of harbor and harbor district improvements and modify the plan and prescribe the specifications for such improvements.

It may perform the functions of warehousemen, stevedores, lighterers, reconditioners, shippers and reshippers of properties of all kinds.

It may manage the business of the district and promote the maritime and commercial interests by proper advertisement of its advantages, and by the solicitation of business, within or without the district, within other States or in foreign countries, through such employees and agencies as are expedient.

Except as otherwise provided in Section 660, the board may adopt all ordinances necessary for the regulation of the district with respect to the parking of vehicles, the speed and operation on vehicles and vessels, berthing of vessels, fire safety ashore and afloat, prohibiting the pumping of raw sewage or waste into port waters, and littering.

Before any ordinance may be adopted, the ordinance shall be published in its entirety on three separate occasions in a newspaper of general circulation published within the district, or if none, in any newspaper of general circulation published in the county in which the district, or a part thereof, is located, together with a notice of the date on which the board will meet for the purpose of adopting the ordinance. The first publication shall occur at least 20 days prior to the date of such meeting, and the second and third publications shall occur at seven-day intervals. The general public shall be allowed to appear at the meeting and be heard on the proposed ordinance. The ordinance shall become effective as provided in Section 9141 of the Elections Code, unless another effective date is set forth by the board.

Every person who violates any of the provisions of a district ordinance adopted pursuant to Sections 6309 and 6309.2 is guilty of an infraction and shall be subject to a fine not to exceed one hundred dollars ($100).

The district's manager, harbormaster or wharfinger, or any duly authorized representative of one of these persons, shall have the power to issue citations for violation of district ordinances in the manner provided by Chapter 5C (commencing with Section 853.5) of Title 3 of Part 2 of the Penal Code.

Notwithstanding the enumeration and specific statement herein of particular powers, the district may do and perform all acts and things necessary and appropriate to carry out the purposes of this part and the powers of the district.

Upon a four-fifths vote of all the members of the board, it may issue negotiable promissory notes bearing interest at a rate of not exceeding 7 percent per annum; provided, however, that said notes shall be payable from revenues and taxes levied for purposes of the district other than the payment of principal and interest on any bonded debt of the district; and provided further, that the maturity shall not be later than 20 years from the date thereof and that the total aggregate amount of such notes outstanding at any one time shall not exceed 1 percent of the assessed valuation of the taxable property in the district, or if said assessed valuation is not obtainable, 1 percent of the county auditor's estimate of the assessed valuation of the taxable property in the district evidenced by his certificate.