State highways: encroachment permits: relocating or removing encroachments: public utility districts: County of Mendocino.

Assembly Member Rogers anchors AB 830 in Mendocino County’s rural highway context, directing that relocation or removal costs for encroachments tied to state highway improvements be borne by the state when the affected entity is a small Mendocino County public utility district, and requiring ongoing coordination with the district through project milestones. The measure creates a temporary carve-out for qualifying Mendocino PUDs (up to 5,000 ratepayers) and preserves the existing framework for other encroachment permits, while adding a sunset and a parallel, long‑term successor provision to ensure continuity.

Under the bill, permits issued to permittees covered by existing encroachment rules would generally require the permittee to relocate or remove an encroachment at its own expense if a highway project necessitates such action. A limited exception would apply to Mendocino County PUDs with 5,000 or fewer ratepayers, in which case the department would bear the sole expense of relocation or removal. The department would also be obligated to notify the affected PUD at each stage of a project that requires relocation or removal. For other encroachment classes, the department could revoke permits with a minimum five‑days’ notice and would determine the timing and manner of relocation or removal, with a waiver available for exclusive public mass transit guideways.

The bill introduces a two‑stage regime: a sunset provision on the Mendocino carve-out that ends January 1, 2031, followed by a separate provision that, beginning that same date, would operate to preserve the substantive rules for the Mendocino PUD category without a built‑in sunset in the text. The accompanying findings argue that a special statute is necessary for Mendocino County due to its geography and the way highways partition communities, justifying tailored treatment outside general encroachment rules. The overall framework retains existing mechanisms—timelines for relocation, department‑issued relocation demands, and the mass transit waiver—while adding the targeted cost-shift and enhanced project‑stage communication with the affected districts.