(a) The Transportation Infrastructure Climate Adaptation Strategy Grant Program is hereby established as a competitive grant program to be awarded and administered by the department to provide funding to local agencies for both of the following purposes:

(1) To identify transportation-related climate vulnerabilities through the development of climate adaptation plans, including climate action plans, hazard mitigation plans, safety elements of required general plans, and resilience improvement plans.

(2) Consistent with the principles of the California State Adaptation Strategy, the resilience improvement plan prepared by the department pursuant to Section 14563, and any applicable regional resilience improvement plans, to identify ways to incorporate transportation-related climate adaptation needs into existing transportation plans.

(b) Upon appropriation of funds by the Legislature, including funds allocated to this program from the PROTECT program, the department shall allocate funds for grants to local agencies for any of the following purposes to adapt to the changing climate:

(1) Climate change adaptation planning that identifies transportation system vulnerabilities and climate-related risks to existing transportation infrastructure, including resilience improvement plans.

(2) Climate adaptation planning that identifies projects to adapt to specific identified climate risks to existing transportation infrastructure.

(3) Planning for specific climate projects that can be programmed in existing local or regional transportation plans.

(c) The department shall administer the program in consultation with the Transportation Agency, the commission, the Natural Resources Agency, the Office of Planning and Research, the Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program Technical Advisory Council, and other state or local agencies that have adopted climate adaptation plans or strategies. The department shall ensure that, to the extent practical, the program is coordinated with other state-administered programs that fund climate adaptation activities.

(d) The department may allocate funds to local agencies pursuant to subdivision (b) by providing grants for any of the following:

(1) Technical assistance for under-resourced and vulnerable communities.

(2) Specific work within a local agency’s climate adaptation plans, climate action plans, hazard mitigation plans, or safety elements of required general plans, that will lead to the identification and development of capital projects that can be programmed as part of local or regional transportation plans.

(3) Development and preparation of planning documents for transportation capital projects, or projects that may use natural infrastructure or provide multiple benefits, that adapt to identified climate vulnerabilities and that can be programmed through an existing local or regional transportation plan.

(e) (1) The department shall develop guidelines for the implementation of this program. The guidelines for this program are exempt from the Administrative Procedure Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1).

(2) The guidelines shall require that each administrative cycle considers climate equity across regions of the state, and considers adaptation strategies with multiple cobenefits that support other state goals and that benefit adaptation efforts, in order to identify, develop, and implement capital improvement projects that meet both of the following requirements:

(A) The project is aligned with state and local strategies for adapting to climate change impacts, including the resilience improvement plan prepared by the department pursuant to Section 14563 and applicable regional resilience improvement plans.

(B) The project is consistent with the principles of the California State Adaptation Strategy, as well as relevant climate action plans, hazard mitigation plans, and safety elements of required general plans.

(3) The guidelines shall require that funding to local agencies is made for the identification of climate vulnerabilities, identification of specific climate risks to transportation infrastructure, and development of projects that correct or adapt to an identified climate risk to transportation infrastructure.

(4) The guidelines shall require that any work funded by this program shall include a multistakeholder process that provides an opportunity for public input from communities potentially impacted by any projects identified or developed as part of the grant.

(f) Nothing in this section shall limit the department from awarding funds to more than one phase of the same project, but no single project shall be awarded all of the funding available under the program.

(Added by Stats. 2022, Ch. 71, Sec. 3. (SB 198) Effective June 30, 2022.)