BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 823
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 15, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
Wesley Chesbro, Chair
AB 823 (Eggman) - As Amended: March 11, 2013
SUBJECT : California Farmland Protection Act
SUMMARY : As part of the California Environmental Quality Act's
(CEQA) process for a project that involves the conversion of
agricultural lands, (1) requires the project applicant to
perform minimum mitigation, as specified, and (2) deems a
project to have fully mitigated all identified significant
project-level and cumulative impacts on agricultural resources
if certain conditions are met.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Pursuant to the California Land Conservation Act of 1965 (the
Williamson Act), preserves agricultural and open space lands
through property tax incentives and voluntary restrictive use
contracts. Private landowners voluntarily restrict their land
to agricultural and compatible open-space uses under minimum
10-year rolling term contracts with local governments. In
return, restricted parcels are assessed for property tax
purposes at a rate consistent with their actual use, rather
than potential market value. In August of 1998, the
Legislature enhanced the Williamson Act with the Farmland
Security Zone (FSZ) provisions. The FSZ provisions offer
landowners greater property tax reduction in return for a
minimum rolling contract term of 20 years.
2)Pursuant to the Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Local Government
Reorganization Act of 2000, defines "agricultural lands" as
land currently used for the purpose of producing an
agricultural commodity for commercial purposes, land left
fallow under a crop rotational program, or land enrolled in an
agricultural subsidy or set-aside program.
3)Pursuant to CEQA, defines "agricultural land" as means prime
farmland, farmland of statewide importance, or unique
farmland, as defined by the United States Department of
Agriculture land inventory and monitoring criteria, as
modified for California. In those areas of the state where
lands have not been surveyed, "agricultural land" means land
AB 823
Page 2
that meets the requirements of "prime agricultural land" as
defined in Williamson Act. The "prime agricultural land"
definition is narrower than the definition of "agricultural
lands" under the Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Local Government
Reorganization Act of 2000. Prime agricultural lands consist
of the state's highest quality agricultural land. Roughly
two-thirds of the land enrolled under Williamson Act contracts
are classified as nonprime agricultural land.
4)Pursuant to Agricultural Land Stewardship Program of 1995,
encourages voluntary, long-term private stewardship of
agricultural lands by offering landowners financial
incentives.
5)Pursuant to the Planning and Zoning Law, requires the Governor
to prepare and maintained a comprehensive State Environmental
Goals and Policy Report that states, among other things,
planning priorities that include the protection of
environmental and agricultural resources by protecting,
preserving, and enhancing the state's most valuable natural
resources, including working landscapes such as farm, range,
and forest lands, natural lands such as wetlands, watersheds,
wildlife habitats, and other wildlands, recreation lands such
as parks, trails, greenbelts, and other open space, and
landscapes with locally unique features and areas identified
by the state as deserving special protection.
6)Pursuant to CEQA, requires lead agencies with the principal
responsibility for carrying out or approving a proposed
project to prepare a negative declaration, mitigated negative
declaration, or environmental impact report for this action,
unless the project is exempt from CEQA (CEQA includes various
statutory exemptions, as well as categorical exemptions in the
CEQA guidelines).
7)Pursuant to CEQA, requires the Natural Resources Agency, in
consultation with the Office of Planning and Research, to
develop an amendment to the CEQA guidelines' "Environmental
Checklist Form" to provide lead agencies an optional
methodology to ensure that significant effects on the
environment of agricultural land conversions are
quantitatively and consistently considered in the
environmental review process. The Environmental Checklist
Form is a sample checklist that a lead agency can complete to
satisfy legal requirements for initial studies when used in
AB 823
Page 3
conjunction with the sample "Environmental Information Form,"
which is a form completed by the project applicant.
THIS BILL :
1)Findings and Declarations. Makes finding and declaration,
which include the following:
a) Despite the analysis and mitigation requirements of CEQA
with respect to projects that result in agricultural land
conversion, lead agencies do not consistently require
feasible mitigation for agricultural land conversion
impacts;
b) The conversion of agricultural land, as defined in
Section 56016 of the Government Code, to nonagricultural
uses without appropriate mitigation negatively affects
California's economic development, natural resources,
social and economic equity, and environmental quality; and
c) It is the intent of the Legislature to adopt minimum
statewide mitigation standards for projects that result in
the conversion of agricultural land to nonagricultural uses
including residential, commercial, civic, industrial,
subdivision, infrastructure, or similar land development
projects. The conversion of agricultural land to
nonagricultural uses is an issue of statewide concern. It
is therefore the policy of the state that each lead agency
comply with the requirements of the bill when approving
projects that convert agricultural lands to nonagricultural
uses.
2) Minimum Mitigation for Conversion. Under CEQA, requires
an applicant for a project that involves the conversion of
agricultural land to a permanent or long-term
nonagricultural use, including residential, commercial,
civic, industrial, infrastructure, or other similar land
development projects to, at a minimum, mitigate the
identified environmental impacts associated with the
conversion of those lands through the permanent protection
and conservation of land suitable for agricultural uses.
The minimum mitigation requirements explained below do not
constitute compliance with "full mitigation" requirements.
a) Conservation Easements. To meet the minimum mitigation
AB 823
Page 4
requirement for agricultural land conversion, requires at
least one of the following mitigation measures to protect
agricultural land:
i) A grant in perpetuity to a qualified entity of an
agricultural conservation easement that limits
development that is inconsistent with agricultural uses
and related activities to ensure the protection and
stewardship of the agricultural productive capacity of
the mitigation land;
ii) The project applicant to pay, or cause to be paid, a
fee to the lead agency sufficient to acquire a perpetual
agricultural conservation easement that meets specified
requirements. The lead agency may secure an easement
through a payment to a qualified entity or to the
Department of Conservation for the California Farmland
Conservancy Program through a deposit to either the
California Farmland Conservancy Program Fund or the Farm,
Ranch, and Watershed Account for the purposes of
acquiring a perpetual agricultural conservation easement
that meets specified requirements; and
iii) The project applicant to enter into a fee agreement
with a qualified entity to acquire an agricultural
conservation easement that meets all specified
requirements.
A "qualified entity" means a land trust, city, county,
nonprofit organization, resource conservation district,
special district, or regional park or open-space district
or regional park or open-space authority that has the
conservation of farmland among its stated purposes.
Any fee paid by a project applicant pursuant to 3) b) or c)
shall include the purchase price of an agricultural
conservation easement, all transaction costs, and funding
for a reasonable endowment for the purpose of monitoring,
administering, legal defense, and all other services
provided by the qualified entity to acquire, manage, and
monitor the easement in perpetuity.
b) Minimum Requirements for Conservation Easement Lands.
Requires any lands identified and proposed for a
conservation easement pursuant to the bill to, at a
AB 823
Page 5
minimum, meet all of the following criteria:
i) The mitigation acreage of conserved lands is at
least equal to the acreage of the agricultural land
converted to nonagricultural uses;
ii) The soil quality of the conserved agricultural land
is comparable to, or better than, the land that is
converted to a nonagricultural use;
iii) The conserved agricultural land has an adequate
water supply for the purposes of producing irrigated
crops, watering of livestock, or other agricultural
purposes for which the conserved agricultural land is
suited;
iv) The conserved agricultural land is located as close
to the project site as the lead agency determines is
feasible or is part of an area designed as a priority
agricultural mitigation or protection area in an adopted
general plan, regional advance mitigation plan,
greenprint, sustainable communities strategy prepared
pursuant to the Sustainable Communities and Climate
Protection Act of 2008, or other local or statewide plan
that promotes agricultural land protection;
v) The conserved agricultural land has not been
previously encumbered by another conservation easement
that restricts the landowner's development rights; and
vi) If the project applicant grants an agricultural
conservation easement to a qualified entity as part of
mitigation, the environmental document and other relevant
project approval documents must specify that the
mitigation land shall be protected through a legal
agreement.
1) Full Mitigation. Deems a project to have fully
mitigated all identified significant project-level and
cumulative impacts on agricultural resources and requires
no further mitigation for those impacts if one of the
following conditions is met:
a) The mitigation ratio of conserved land to converted land
is two acres for every one acre of converted land; or
AB 823
Page 6
b) For a project located within an existing city's
jurisdictional limits, the mitigation acreage of conserved
lands is at least equal to the acreage of the agricultural
land converted to nonagricultural uses, and meets at least
one of the following criteria:
i) The project is a residential housing project that
has a density of at least two times the statewide average
of persons-per-acre (PPA) development ratios;
ii) The project is a commercial development with a
minimum of at least two times the statewide floor-to-area
ratio (FAR); or
iii) The project is a mixed-use development that meets
the PPA and FAR formulas described above.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of the Bill. This bill establish clear minimum
requirements for mitigating the loss of agricultural land
related to a project, including requirements to: conserve
agricultural lands that are at least the same acreage as the
farmland that is being converted to nonagricultural
uses; establish that the soil quality of the conserved land is
at least comparable to the converted agricultural land; ensure
that the conserved land has an adequate water supply for
agricultural purposes, and that the conserved land is located
as close to the converted land as feasible.
In addition, this bill will provide certainty for developers
by detailing additional steps they could take so that the
project could be deemed by statute to have been fully
mitigated with regard to the impacts associated with the loss
of agricultural land.
A project would be deemed to have met this threshold if the
mitigation ratio of conserved land to converted land is two
acres for every one acre of converted land or, for a project
within existing city limits, the mitigation of acreage of
conserved land is at least equal to the acreage of the
converted land is either a high-density residential housing,
AB 823
Page 7
mixed-use, or commercial development project.
2)Suggested Amendments. After discussions with a number of
stakeholders, there appear to be questions related to how this
bill will affect environmental restoration projects and
whether the full mitigation requirements are mandatory or just
an option that can be used to fully mitigate agricultural land
conversion. So this bill does not have the unintended
consequences of thwarting important restoration projects and
precluding other options to fully mitigate conversion, the
author and committee may wish to consider the following
amendments:
Amend subdivision (b) of section 21095.6 of the
Public Resources Code to state the following:
(b) An applicant for a project, as defined in Section
21065, that involves the conversion of agricultural land
to a permanent or long-term land development projects
nonagricultural use , including residential, commercial,
civic, industrial, infrastructure , or other similar land
development projects shall, at a minimum, mitigate the
identified environmental impacts associated with the
conversion of those lands through the permanent
protection and conservation of land suitable for
agricultural uses.
Add subdivision (i) to section 21095.6 of the Public
Resources Code to state the following:
(i) The "full mitigation" provisions set forth in
paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of Section 21095.7 are
not exclusive of other mitigation options that may be
used to fully mitigate the loss of agricultural land.
1)Double Referred. This bill has been double referred to the
Agriculture Committee.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Beverly Hills Farmers' Market
Burrows Ranch, Inc.
California Certified Organic Farmers
AB 823
Page 8
California State Grange
Ecological Farming Association
Farmland Working Group
Greenbelt Alliance
LandWatch Monterey County
Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District
Model Neighborhood Program
Nature Conservancy
Nicholas Calf Ranch
Oak Hill Farm Sonoma
PRBO Conservation Science
Roots of Change
Santa Clara County Open Space Authority
Sequoia Riverlands Trust
Sierra Farms Lamb
Sierra Nevada Alliance
Sustainable Agriculture Education
Sustainable Economies Law Center
Swanton Berry Farms
Tulare County Citizens for Responsible Growth
Valley Land Alliance
Opposition
Association of California Water Agencies
Building Industry Association of Southern California
California Apartment Association
California Building Industry Association
California Business Properties Association
California Chamber of Commerce
California Coast Forest Association
California Land Title Association
California Municipal Utilities Association
Calleguas Municipal Utilities Association
California State Association of Counties
Coachella Valley Water District
Eastern Municipal Water District
Large Scale Solar Association
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
Orange County Business Council
Rural County Representatives of California
Three Valleys Municipal Water District
Southwest California Legislative Council
Western Municipal Water District
Westlands Water District
AB 823
Page 9
Western States Petrolium Association
Analysis Prepared by : Mario DeBernardo / NAT. RES. / (916)
319-2092