Low Income Camping (LICA) – Urgent Action Needed by March 7!

The State’s zombie “low impact camping” (LICA) bill has come back to life and will be heard by the State Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development on March 13, 2025. If adopted, this bill (AB-518) could have major negative impacts on fire safety, protection of wildlife areas, and quality of life in Bonny Doon. The time to contact our elected officials to express opposition to AB-518 is NOW.

The bill is posted at: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB518. The bill is very short—roughly a single page—and it contains astonishingly few restrictions on privately hosted camping: it allows camping even on properties that CalFire has mapped as very high fire hazard and on properties that private insurance companies won’t insure; open fires are not restricted; no water storage is required; no property manager is required to be present; no phone communication is required; generators are allowed from 6:00AM to 10:00PM.

Two steps must occur before these so-called “low-impact” camping areas become legal in Santa Cruz County. First, the State legislature must approve AB-518. Second, the County Board of Supervisors (BoS) must pass a local ordinance that allows them.

You may recall that our BoS opposed the County’s proposed 2024 LICA ordinance and also voted that any future ordinance would require a full review under the California Environmental Quality Act. We hope that the BoS maintains their opposition to LICAs in our County.

In the meantime, we urge community members to contact our elected officials and express opposition to AB-518. Please email our elected representatives by March 7 to express your opposition.

Use this sample letter or write your own. The RBDA report on environmental impact of so-called “low-impact” camping areas is posted here.

Send your comments by email to:

Members of the State Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development

assemblymember.haney@assembly.ca.gov

assemblymember.joepatterson@assembly.ca.gov

assemblymember.caloza@assembly.ca.gov

assemblymember.gallagher@assembly.ca.gov

assemblymember.kalra@assembly.ca.gov

assemblymember.lee@assembly.ca.gov

assemblymember.quirk-silva@assembly.ca.gov

assemblymember.soria@assembly.ca.gov

assemblymember.ta@assembly.ca.gov

assemblymember.wicks@assembly.ca.gov

Patty.Schapiro@asm.ca.gov

assemblymember.wilson@assembly.ca.gov

Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors: boardofsupervisors@santacruzcountyca.gov

Assemblymember Gail Pelerin: Assemblymember.Pellerin@assembly.ca.gov

State Senator John Laird: senator.laird@senate.ca.gov

Chris Ward (LICA bill’s author): assemblymember.ward@assembly.ca.gov

Alternatively, comments can be submitted through the State portal following the instructions at https://www.assembly.ca.gov/sites/assembly.ca.gov/files/Publications/2019_quick_ref_guide_advocacy.pdf

This is a multi-step procedure that requires going to the website linked above, then going to another site to register for an account and then going back to the first site to follow additional steps. We were able to submit comments this way—presumably the official way—but we had to use Chrome after Safari returned an error message.