US Laws, Codes, Statutes & Cases

227.  (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
   (1) The neighborhood surrounding the former Cypress section of
Route 880 in Oakland has suffered great and unusual hardship due to
the freeway's collapse during the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake and its
subsequent demolition.
   (2) In addition to the hardship and suffering related to the
freeway disaster, the Cypress neighborhood had endured for many years
the pollution, noise, and environmental degradation of having a
freeway cut through the neighborhood.
   (3) The Cypress neighborhood will face additional hardships
related to the Cypress freeway reconstruction project for, unlike
other freeway projects elsewhere, this will be the second time that
residents and businesses in that neighborhood will be required to
endure freeway construction-related problems, dislocations, and
sacrifices.
   (b) In order to alleviate a portion of those problems for
residents and businesses in the Cypress neighborhood, the Legislature
has enacted this article.


227.1.  (a) In acquiring property for the Cypress freeway
reconstruction project from the owner of a small business, the
department shall make no deduction from the compensation to be paid
for the property for hazardous substance removal and related remedial
activities if the Department of Toxic Substances Control, the San
Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, and the Alameda
County Department of Health all determine that the hazardous
substance does not threaten to degrade the beneficial use of waters
of the state, and does not otherwise pose a substantial hazard to
human health or the environment.
   (b) Nothing in this section relieves any prior owner from
responsibility for any required cleanup or abatement action.
   (c) For purposes of this section, "small business" means a
for-profit enterprise having a net worth of not more than six million
dollars ($6,000,000) and after tax profits of not more than four
million dollars ($4,000,000).