Senate Bill No. 484
(By Senators Craigo and Manchin)
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[Introduced February 20, 1995; referred to the Committee
on Government Organization; and then to the Committee on
Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section three, article one-a, chapter
twenty of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to natural
resources; real estate management and procedures; public
land corporation, powers and duties; and gifts of cabins
in state parks or forests.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section three, article one-a, chapter twenty of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1A. REAL ESTATE MANAGEMENT AND PROCEDURES.
§20-1A-3. Public land corporation, powers and duties.
The corporation is hereby authorized and empowered to:
(1) Acquire from any persons or the state auditor or any
local, state or federal agency, by purchase, lease or other
agreement, any lands necessary and required for public use;
(2) Acquire by purchase, condemnation, lease or agreement,
receive by gifts and devises, or exchange, rights-of-way,
easements, waters and minerals suitable for public use;
(3) Sell or exchange public lands where it is determined
that the sale or exchange of such tract meets any or all of the
following disposal criteria:
(A) Such tract was acquired for a specific purpose and the
tract is no longer required for that or any other state purpose;
or
(B) Disposal of such tract serves important public
objectives including, but not limited to, expansion of
communities and economic development which cannot be achieved on
lands other than public lands and which clearly outweigh other
public objectives and values including, but not limited to,
recreation and scenic values which would be served by maintaining
such tract in state ownership; or
(C) Such tract, because of its location or other
characteristics, is difficult and uneconomic to manage as part of the public lands and is not suitable for management by another
state department or agency.
There is hereby created in the state treasury a special
public land corporation fund into which shall be paid all
proceeds from public land sales and exchanges. The corporation
may acquire public lands from use of the payments made to the
fund, along with any interest accruing to said fund. The
corporation shall report annually, just prior to the beginning of
the regular session of the Legislature, to the finance committees
of the Legislature on the financial condition of the special
fund.
(4) Sell, purchase or exchange lands or stumpage for the
purpose of consolidating lands under state or federal government
administration subject to the disposal criteria specified in
subdivision three of this section;
(5) Negotiate and effect loans or grants from the government
of the United States or any agency thereof for acquisition and
development of such lands as may be authorized by law to be
acquired for public use;
(6) Expend the income from the use and development of public
lands for the following purposes:
(A) Liquidate obligations incurred in the acquisition,
development and administration of such lands, until all such
obligations have been fully discharged;
(B) Purchase, develop, restore and preserve for public use,
sites, structures, objects and documents of prehistoric,
historical, archaeological, recreational, architectural and
cultural significance to the state of West Virginia; and
(C) Obtain grants or matching moneys available from the
government of the United States or any of its instrumentalities
for prehistoric, historic, archaeological, recreational,
architectural and cultural purposes; and
(7) Acquire by purchase, lease or agreement, receive by
gifts and devises, or exchange, from any individual or other
legal entity who owns a cabin in any state park or state forest
a conditional transfer of the right to use that cabin: Provided,
That any revenues realized from the rental or lease of the cabin
shall be shared by the owner and the corporation for a period of
twenty years, at which time the full title to the cabin shall
vest in the corporation.
The corporation shall have the authority to designate lands
to which it has title for development and administration for the public use including recreation, wildlife stock grazing,
agricultural rehabilitation and homesteading or other
conservation activities. The corporation shall have authority to
enter into leases for the development and extraction of minerals,
including sand and gravel, except as otherwise circumscribed
herein. The corporation shall reserve title and ownership to the
mineral rights in all cases. It shall convey, assign, or allot
lands to the title or custody of proper departments or other
agencies of state government for administration and control
within the functions of such departments or other agencies as
provided by law. The corporation shall make proper lands
available for the purpose of cooperating with the government of
the United States in the relief of unemployment and hardship or
for any other public purpose. The corporation shall report
annually to the Legislature on its public land holdings, its
financial condition and its operations and shall make such
recommendations to the Legislature as deemed proper concerning
the acquisition, development, disposition and use of public
lands. All state agencies, institutions and departments shall
make an inventory of the public lands of the state as may be by
law specifically allocated to and used by each and provide to the corporation a list of such public lands, including their current
use, intended use or best use to which such land may be put:
Provided, That the state department of highways need not provide
such inventory of public lands allocated to and used by it. The
inventory shall identify those parcels of land which have no
present or foreseeable useful purpose to the state of West
Virginia. The inventory shall be submitted to the corporation by
the first day of August, one thousand nine hundred eighty-nine.
The corporation shall compile such inventory of all public lands
and report to the Legislature by no later than the first day of
January, one thousand nine hundred ninety, on its public land
holdings and the land holdings of the other agencies or
departments of this state which are required to report their
holdings to the corporation as set forth hereinabove, its
financial condition and its operations.
During the continuance of the Blennerhassett historical park
commission, the public land corporation and its members shall
consult with and keep the said Blennerhassett historical park
commission fully informed as to any official action to be taken
or proposed to be taken pursuant to this act regarding or
affecting Blennerhassett Island and its prehistoric, historic, archaeological, architectural, cultural and recreational
significance or development or any of the powers and duties of
the Blennerhassett historical park commission.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to permit the Public Land
Corporation to acquire privately owned cabins at state parks or
state forests after sharing revenue with the owners for a period
of twenty years.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.