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Cal. HNC § 1698

This is the official text of Cal. HNC § 1698, part of California’s Harbors and Navigation Code — regulates ports, harbors, and boating.

Not legal advice. This page reproduces the official text of a government statute for reference only. Laws change, and how a statute applies depends on your specific facts. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.

Official statutory text

(a) “Port or harbor infrastructure” means any of the following, if its primary or predominant use is of direct benefit to the port or harbor:

(1) Streets, roads, highways, bridges, sidewalks, curbs, gutters, tunnels, subways, alleyways, viaducts, pipelines, rail lines, or other facilities for the transportation or movement of people, vehicles, equipment, or goods.

(2) Piers, docks, wharves, slips, quays, platforms, decks, cranes, or other facilities for the mooring, docking, loading, or unloading of vessels.

(3) Lands, tidelands, submerged lands, easements, port access routes, channel improvements, rights-of-way, dredge disposal sites, safety zones, breakwaters, levees, bulkheads, or walls of rock or other material to protect property or traffic.

(4) Parking, warehouse, or storage facilities.

(5) Parks, recreation, or open space facilities.

(6) Remediation or any capital improvement that improves environmental quality.

(7) Water, wastewater, drainage, electric, or telecommunication systems or facilities.

(8) Buildings, structures, facilities, improvements, or equipment necessary or convenient to any of paragraphs (1) to (7), inclusive, or to the operation of a port or harbor.

(9) Public improvements authorized pursuant to the Improvement Act of 1911 (Division 7 (commencing with Section 5000) of the Streets and Highways Code), the Improvement Bond Act of 1915 (Division 10 (commencing with Section 8500) of the Streets and Highways Code), and the Mello-Roos Community Facilities Act of 1982 (Chapter 2.5 (commencing with Section 53311) of Part 1 of Division 2 of Title 5 of the Government Code).

(b) Any port or harbor infrastructure may be privately operated. Except for any port or harbor infrastructure financed or subsidized with public trust revenues, any privately owned port or harbor infrastructure may be eligible in whole or in part for financing or other support or subsidy from money deposited in the infrastructure fund pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 1701.

(c) If a port or harbor infrastructure financed wholly or partly with public funds is privately owned and if the use for which the port or harbor infrastructure was originally constructed changes or is incompatible with the port authority’s master plan, the private owner shall pay the public agency the percentage of the full appreciated value of the port or harbor infrastructure that was originally financed with public funds.

(d) Any port or harbor infrastructure may be located within, partly within and partly outside, or outside the boundaries of any harbor agency.

(e) Any port or harbor infrastructure that has been purchased, constructed, expanded, improved, or rehabilitated by the expenditure or use of public trust revenues shall be held as an asset of the trust in a share proportionate to the investment of public trust revenues.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.