The legislation transfers rights to approve projects from the state lands commission to the city, adding to a similar land-use transfer in 2006, according to economic development director Brad Nail.
The 2006 bill allowed the city to negotiate directly with oil refinery operator Tesoro for the cleanup of a 50-year-old petroleum coke storage dump at Third and Harbor streets and get the job done much sooner, said Joe Canciamilla, a former Assemblyman who was the original bill's sponsor.
Pittsburg will be able to sign off on projects in the waterfront area, such as restaurants, hotels or new industrial businesses, without having to wade through state bureaucracy.
"Any time you go to the state with the project, you're looking at years to get it approved," Nail said. "If a developer comes to the city, we will be the permitting agency, not the state lands commission."
Eighty percent of the revenue from land leases will go to the city and 20 percent to the state under the deal, according to the office of state Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, the bill's sponsor.
The bill will include submerged land along the city's entire waterfront and as far as the historic high tide on shore, Nail said.
"There is a lot of acreage that is old industrial land that is no longer used," he said. "We want to clean up the property and develop it to its highest and best use."
The city has invested more than $20 million in dredging its harbor and building a new marina for recreational boating. "Recreation is just one of the potential uses," Nail said. "Much of the land is more suited to industrial development."
Old industrial businesses, such as the USS-POSCO steel plant and the Dow Chemical plant, have long-term leases near the shoreline.
Pittsburg would like to bring in more new businesses similar to the United Spiral Pipe plant at the east end of Third Street or the recently opened K2 Pure Solutions manufacturing plant on the Dow Chemical property, Nail said.
"Our goal would be to create jobs, good-paying jobs that would enable a resident to raise a family," he said.