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SACRAMENTO – An
unusual agreement between state and
local governments and a land developer
will allow the City of Lathrop to expand
while also shielding outstanding
farmland from development. This “real
world” solution – involving the state
Department of Conservation (DOC), the
city and Richland Planned Communities --
could help set a tone for future
development projects and land-use
planning throughout California.
“This project is an
excellent example of how parties that
sometimes have different goals and
agendas can work together to benefit
Californians,” said Mike Chrisman,
California Secretary for Resources and a
fourth-generation rancher. “Meeting
urban needs sometimes can become
complicated and contentious when
farmland conversion is at stake. But in
this case, the parties came to a
mutually beneficial arrangement. It’s a
win-win project. Richland Planned
Communities deserves a great deal of
credit for doing things the right way.”
Under the agreement,
known as a Williamson Act Easement
Exchange, the developer donated 927
acres of farmland to the Central Valley
Farmland Trust. The “Mainstone” property
– south of Lathrop near the Deuel
Vocational Institute -- has been placed
into an agricultural conservation
easement and can never be developed.
In exchange, a
Williamson Act contract on 308 acres of
farmland closer to the community was
cancelled, allowing development to take
place. That property essentially will
become a downtown for the San Joaquin
County community. Plans include a
community center, the city’s first high
school, a community park, businesses and
housing, with Richland as the developer.
“Typically,
Williamson Act cancellations involve the
loss of farmland,” noted DOC Director
Bridgett Luther. “Ideally, we’d prefer
that Williamson Act contracts be allowed
to run their course and that development
be directed away from farmland. But we
understand that there are difficult
choices and compromises in the real
word. So this exchange is a real-world
solution that benefits everyone.”
Nearly 17 million
acres of the state’s 45 million acres of
farm and ranch land are enrolled in the
Williamson Act, which was established in
1965 and is overseen by DOC’s Division
of Land Resource Protection. Through the
Act, landowners receive property tax
incentives in exchange for a commitment
to keep their land in agricultural use
for a minimum of 10 years. The Act is
estimated to save agricultural
landowners from 20 percent to 75 percent
in property tax liability each year.
Those tax savings have been important to
the economic viability of many
agricultural operations around the
state.
The California
Supreme Court has established that the
preferred method for ending a Williamson
Act contract is non-renewal. Once a
landowner opts out, the contract winds
down over a 10-year period
and the property
taxes rise incrementally. A landowner
can petition to cancel a contract early,
but a local government must make
specific findings backed by substantial
evidence to approve the cancellation. If
the contract is cancelled, landowners
must pay a fee equal to 12.5 percent of
the unrestricted, fair market value of
the property. That fee goes into the
state’s General Fund; it isn’t
specifically earmarked to protect
agricultural land or to be used locally.
However, the
Williamson Act Easement Exchange Program
keeps cancellation fees working in the
local area to preserve agricultural land
instead of going to the general fund. In
an exchange, as the Williamson Act
contract is cancelled on one parcel, a
permanent agricultural conservation
easement is created on another parcel of
equal or greater size and value.
This was only the
fifth Williamson Act easement exchange
since the program’s inception in 1998,
and the largest in terms of acreage.
“Our easement
exchange program offers a way to protect
farmland, which is an irreplaceable
resource, even as we address development
needs,” said Brian Leahy, chief of the
Division of Land Resource Protection.
“We applaud Richland’s decision to
utilize this option.”
Although California
leads the nation in agricultural
production, farmland is being converted
rapidly for other uses. Nearly 54,000
acres of irrigated farmland were taken
out of production around the state from
2000-02, according to DLRP, and nearly
93,000 acres of land were urbanized.
“The Williamson Act
is designed to protect farmland from
urbanization, and it has a tremendous
track record of doing that,” Luther
said. “Some parties see it as just a
speed bump in the path of development,
but it can and should be used as a
land-use planning tool. The work we’ve
done with the City of Lathrop and
Richland can be a template for other
communities and developers in
California.”
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