BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1142|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 1142
Author: Wiggins (D)
Amended: As introduced
Vote: 21
SENATE LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE : 4-1, 4/19/10
AYES: Cox, Kehoe, DeSaulnier, Price
NOES: Aanestad
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 8-0, 5/10/10
AYES: Kehoe, Cox, Alquist, Leno, Price, Wolk, Wyland, Yee
NO VOTE RECORDED: Corbett, Denham, Walters
SUBJECT : Agricultural resources: grants
SOURCE : California Council of Land Trusts
DIGEST : This bill authorizes the Director of the
California Department of Conservation to make grants, from
a source other than the California Farmland Conservancy
Program Fund, for the acquisition of agricultural
conservation easements, upon legislative appropriation.
This bill requires the Director to determine that those
grants are consistent with the purposes of the California
Farmland Conservancy Act and requires that agricultural
conservation easements funded by those grants meet
specified requirements.
ANALYSIS : The California Farmland Conservancy Act allows
the Department of Conservation (DOC) to give grants to
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acquire agricultural conservation easements and fee title
interests to preserve farmland (SB 1864, Costa, 2002).
These perpetual easements keep agricultural land in private
ownership while the owners voluntarily avoid development
for anything but agricultural production.
The DOC has provided more than $62 million in grants
through the California Farmland Conservancy Program Fund
(CFCPF) for more than 125 agricultural conservation
easements covering over 41,000 acres. Among the many
requirements that apply to these grants, state law
prohibits grants funded through the CFCPF from imposing any
restrictions on commercial agricultural activities.
This bill authorizes the Director of DOC to make grants,
from a source other than CFCPF, for the acquisition of
agricultural conservation easements, upon legislative
appropriation.
This bill requires the Director to determine that those
grants are consistent with the purposes of the California
Farmland Conservancy Act and requires that agricultural
conservation easements funded by those grants meet the
following requirements:
1.The easement's primary purpose must be consistent with
the property's continuing agricultural use.
2.The easement cannot substantially prevent agricultural
uses on the property.
3.Any restriction on the property's current or foreseeable
agricultural use must only be imposed to restrict the
property's uncultivated areas.
4.If the property's characteristics or qualities meet the
original purpose of the funding source as cultivated
land, the property may continue to be commercially
cultivated with the minimum restrictions necessary to
meet the original funding source requirements.
5.The nonagricultural qualities that will be protected by
the easement must be inherent to the property.
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6.The easement must require that a subsequent easement or
deed restriction will be subordinate to the agricultural
conservation easement and require the Director's
approval.
This bill creates the Farm, Ranch, and Watershed Account in
the Soil and Conservation Fund to make grants that
implement its provisions.
Comments
Some observers say that farm and ranch properties could be
used for multiple purposes, including flood corridors or
habitat preservation, but the statutory limits on
agricultural conservation easements makes the property
ineligible for CFCPF money. They want state officials to
have more flexibility in the rules that govern the
agricultural conservation easements that the DOC funds.
Agricultural conservation easements cannot restrict
commercial agricultural activities. As a result, the DOC
cannot use CFCPF money to protect other resource values on
agricultural land if that protection limits the property's
agricultural use. By contrast, SB 1142 allows the DOC to
use non-CFCPF funds as grants to protect riparian zones,
wildlife habitat, or flood corridors while simultaneously
keeping the farmed portions in agricultural use.
The author's office indicates that California's farmers and
ranchers are struggling to keep their lands in active
agricultural production and face many challenges including
the possible loss of their Williamson Act contracts.
Ensuring that these lands remain continue to produce food
for Californians and that nation simultaneously provides
many other public benefits, including support for rural
economies, water supply and quality, flood control,
wildlife, scenic vistas and our agricultural heritage. The
DOC successful Farmland Conservancy Program is one tool
that helps farming and ranching families keep these lands
in agricultural production. It provides grant funds for
the purchase of conservation easements from willing
landowners that keep lands in private ownership while the
owners voluntarily avoid development for anything but
agricultural production. However, state law prohibits
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these grant funds from imposing any restrictions on any
commercial agricultural activities, making it difficult for
the state to help landowners with properties that could be
used for multiple purposes, such as flood corridors or
wildlife habitat. This bill gives the DOC flexibility to
work with willing landowners by use other available funding
as grants to protect riparian zones, wildlife habitat or
flood corridors while simultaneously keeping the farmed
portions in agricultural use.
Since 1996, the DOC has supported local efforts to conserve
farmland by providing grant funds for the purchase of
agricultural conservation easements through the California
Farmland Conservancy Program (CFCP). In creating the CFCP,
the Legislature recognized the many valuable contributions
that farmland makes to the state and local communities. To
ensure its focus on agricultural conservation, CFCP's
statutory requirements do not allow any restrictions on
agricultural activities. This bill is necessary because
the CFCP grants cannot be made for easements that in any
way restrict agricultural practices even on areas of the
property that are not farmable. However, to protect other
resources or to provide other public benefits, minor
compromise of the exclusive agricultural use is often
necessary. If the bill passes, additional funding sources
for funding agricultural easements with some limited
restrictions could become available. This bill allows the
DOC to accept and utilize such funds without changing the
current provisions of the CFCP. It cannot utilize any
funds dedicated to the CFCP. This bill has been carefully
crafted to ensure that agricultural use remains the primary
use of the property while allowing additional public
benefits that other funding sources may focus upon, such as
flood protection. In sum, this bill allows the DOC to
increase its support for agricultural conservation
easements by expanding the scope of projects that can be
funded with non-CFCP dollars.
Other states have eligibility requirements for farmland
preservation programs that allow for the easement to
include those areas that are not involved in active
agricultural use, but are a part of the larger agricultural
landscape protected for wildlife habitat, clean water,
clean air, flood control, or scenic open space.
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The Pennsylvania State Agricultural Land Preservation Board
requires that an agricultural conservation easement must
contain the greater of 50 percent or 10 acres of harvested
cropland, pasture, or grazing land. (Pennsylvania Farmland
Protection Association)
The State of Michigan specifies that a parcel eligible for
The Michigan Farmland and Open Space Preservation Program
is 40 acres or larger, and a minimum of 51 percent of the
land is agriculturally active or that the parcel has at
least five acres but less than 40 acres in size, more than
51 percent of the land is agriculturally active, and the
agricultural land produces a gross annual income in excess
of $200 per tillable acre. (Michigan Department of
Agriculture)
Related Legislation
Two similar measures by Assembly Member Blakeslee, AB 929,
2009-10 Session, and AB 1180, 2007-08 Session, passed the
Assembly and the Senate Local Government Committee but died
on the Senate Appropriations Committee's suspense file.
SB 275 (Costa), Chapter 931, Statutes of 1995, enacted the
Agricultural Land Stewardship Program Act of 1995, which
established a program for grants from the DOC to local
governments and nonprofit organizations, the Agricultural
Land Stewardship Program Fund. The bill prescribed related
eligibility requirements and procedures related to
permitting grants for the acquisition of agricultural
conservation easements.
AB 1229 (Assembly Agriculture Committee), Chapter 503,
Statutes of 1999, renamed the program to the California
Farmland Conservancy Program, and required that an easement
also be granted by the owner of a fee simple interest in
land to a resource conservation district, or to a regional
park or open-space authority that has the conservation of
farmland among its stated purposes. The bill prescribed
various requirements for the termination and repurchase of
an easement and the distributed moneys received in
connection with the termination of an easement. The bill
provided that an easement may, at the request of the
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landowner, establish provisions that are more restrictive
than those provided in the act. The bill authorized the
department to accept donations of funds if the department
is the designated beneficiary of the donation and it agrees
to use the funds for program purposes in a county specified
by the donor, and to establish a payment system for the
purchase of agricultural conservation easements that is
mutually satisfactory to the department and the seller of
the easement, if full payment is secured.
SB 1864 (Costa), Chapter 616, Statutes of 2002, included
fee title acquisition grants among the purposes for which
moneys in the California Farmland Conservancy Fund may be
used, and revised various procedures for the application
and funding of grants as well as the valuation of
agricultural conservation easements.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee analysis,
the DOC indicates that the cost to administer grants under
the program can be accommodated within existing resources,
because this program will operate in a similar manner and
be staffed by the same personnel that are administering the
existing grant program.
By authorizing a new use of state funds, this bill creates
cost pressures on state funds. For example, the DOC
indicates that enactment of this bill will allow the DOC,
upon appropriation of the Legislature, to use Proposition
1E funds authorized for floodway protection to purchase
easements. Proposition 1E authorizes the expenditure of
$290 million in general obligation bond funds for flood
protection corridors and bypasses, of which about $150
million remains available for appropriation. The purchase
of conservation easements is one of the eligible uses of
those funds. To the extent that Proposition 1E funds are
appropriated and expended pursuant to this bill, it may
reduce the availability of funds for other authorized uses.
The extent of this cost pressure is unknown.
SUPPORT : (Verified 5/12/10)
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California Council of Land Trusts (source)
American Land Conservancy
Amigo de los Rios
Audubon California
Bay Area Open Space Council
Big Sur Land Trust
Bolsa Chica Land Trust
California Coastal Coalition
California League of Conservation Voters
California Rangelands Trust
Catalina Island Conservancy
Central Valley Land Trust Council
Defenders of Wildlife
Eastern Sierra Land Trust
Feather River Land Trust
General Valley Land Trust Council
Lake County Land Trust
Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County
Land Trust of Napa County
Land Trust for Santa Barbara County
Land Trust of Santa Cruz County
Lassen Land & Trails Trust
Marin Agricultural Land Trust
Mendocino Land Trust
Mountain Meadows Conservancy
Muir Heritage Land Trust
Natural Resources Defense Council
Pacific Forest Trust
Peninsula Open Space Trust
Placer Land Trust
Planning and Conservation League
Preserve Calavera
Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency
Sanctuary Forest, Inc.
San Diego River Park Foundation
San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust
Save Mt. Diablo
Sempirvirens Fund
Sequoia Riverlands Trust
Shasta Land Trust
Sierra-Cascade Land Trust Council
Sierra Foothills Conservancy
Solano Land Trust
Sonoma Land Trust
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Tri-Valley Conservancy
Truckee-Donner Land Trust
Trust for Public Land
Tulare Basin Wildlife Partners
AGB:nl 5/12/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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