A bipartisan effort to protect public land in California has been launched in the State Capitol.

The Public Lands Protection Act would rezone land currently owned by the federal government under the state’s open space laws if the land is sold to a private entity.

“Once it’s in private hands, it would basically then make sure that California zoning protections are automatically applicable to the land,” said Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, who authored the legislation.

He said this would mean that if a private developer acquired federal land, they would have to go through the state permitting process and comply with state regulations to develop on areas like current national parks and recreation areas.

Last June, while Congress debated the budget reconciliation as part of the One Big Beautiful bill, Sen. Mike Lee introduced a proposal to sell more than 2 million acres of federal land.

Although the Senate parliamentarian struck down the plan to include it in the tax bill, Zbur says it’s important for California to be proactive in protecting against future attempts at a sell-off.

“I just thought, what can we do to protect this and make sure that, if it’s sold, that it is actually subject to oversight and making sure that we’re protecting the values that I think Californians hold dear,” Zbur said

Zbur, a former environmental land-use attorney, said his bill would strike a balance between protecting the state’s open spaces, such as Lake Tahoe and Yosemite, and avoiding overreach into federal authority.

The proposal has received support from conservation groups to prevent the sale of California’s open space to industries such as oil drilling and manufacturing.

“As we approach America’s 250th birthday, we must consider what we want the U.S. to look like 250 years from now. Our descendants deserve the America the Beautiful we sometimes take for granted,” said Laura Deehan, Environment California Director, in a statement. “We need to protect our wildlife and preserve our national parks, national forests and the rest of our great outdoors.”

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