BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 707
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Date of Hearing: April 15, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE
Henry T. Perea, Chair
AB 707
Wood - As Amended April 6, 2015
SUBJECT: Agricultural land: Williamson Act contracts:
cancellation.
SUMMARY: This bill removes the ability of a land owner and the
California Department of Conservation (DOC) to negotiate
Williamson Act (Act) cancellation fees, if the land in an Act
contract is within a county that has a local cancellation
assessment for Act contract lands.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Creates the Act, also known as the California Land
Conservation Act of 1965, which authorizes cities and counties
to enter into agricultural land preservation contracts with
landowners who agree to restrict the use of their land for a
minimum of 10 years in exchange for lower-assessed valuations
for property tax purposes.
2)Provides for a 12.5% cancellation fee, based on the value of
the land, for canceling an Act contract, as specified.
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3)Allows DOC and the landowner may agree on a cancellation
valuation of the land.
4)Allows a city or county to pass an ordinance that requires an
additional cancellation penalty fee that goes to the local
jurisdiction.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown.
COMMENTS: The Act conserves agricultural and open space land by
allowing private property owners to sign voluntary contracts
with counties and cities, restricting their land to agriculture,
open space, and other compatible uses. In return, county
assessors must lower the assessed value of the contracted lands
to reflect their use as agricultural or open space instead of
the market value. Making sure that private property owners use
their Act land appropriately is essential to maintaining the
statute's constitutional integrity.
Approximately 16.6 million acres are under Act contracts. When
the proposed 2003-04 budget wanted to save approximately $39
million by ending the state subventions, the Legislative
Analyst's Office recommended a 10-year phase-out. The
Legislature's 2009-10 budget reduced the subventions to $27.8
million. The subventions were essentially eliminated in the
2009-10 budget by cutting the appropriation to $1,000. There
were several attempts to restore this funding by the Legislature
in 2010, which were unsuccessful.
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Due to the elimination of subvention payments, some local
jurisdictions passed ordinances that impose an additional
cancellation penalty fee. If a property owner wanted to cancel
an Act contract before the ten year period, the landowner must
petition the local board or council to terminate a contract. The
board/council may grant cancellation if certain statutory
findings are met. If the local government approves the
cancellation, the landowner is required to pay a cancellation
fee equal to 12.5% of the cancellation valuation of the property
to the state. Merced County and Humboldt County (Humboldt) are
the only counties to have local cancellation fees, in addition
to the state cancellation fee. Humboldt's local cancellation
fee is 12.5%.
According the author, this bill is needed to address situations
where a local government has imposed an Act cancellation fee in
addition to the state Act cancellation fee. The need was
demonstrated by the following incident: On August 21, 2011, the
Ambrosini Dairy Property (Riverside Ranch), in Humboldt,
requested to cancel their Act contract. The cancellation was
initiated by the Western Rivers Conservancy (WRC), who purchased
the land. The request for cancellation triggered Humboldt
County Assessor Office to begin to determine the fair market
value of the land, which determines the Act cancellation fee.
The WRC requested a waiver to the Humboldt's fee. The
Humboldt's Act Advisory Committee recommended to the Board of
Supervisors that the local cancellation fee not be waived. On
April 23, 2012, the DOC sent a letter to Humboldt informing the
local jurisdiction that WRC and the DOC had reached an agreement
on a cancellation valuation, as allowed by current law. This
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negotiation between the DOC and WRC took place without the
Humboldt's input. This bill addresses this issue by allowing
the county, if it has a local cancellation fee, to be part of
the discussion of land valuation.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
County of Humboldt (sponsor)
California State Association of Counties
Rural County Representative of California
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by:Victor Francovich / AGRI. / (916) 319-2084
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