BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2351
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 9, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 2351 (Gordon) - As Amended: April 16, 2012
Policy Committee: Local
GovernmentVote:7-1
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires a landowner wishing to cancel a Williamson
Act contract to pay a refundable five percent cancellation fee.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires a landowner wishing to cancel any contract pursuant
to the Williamson Act to pay five percent of the total
cancellation fee, as specified, within 30 days of a county
board of supervisors or city council decision to grant
tentative approval of the cancellation of the contract.
2)Requires, upon the cancellation of a contract, the payment to
be applied toward the total cancellation fee, as specified.
3)Requires, upon notification, that the cancellation of a
contract will not be completed, the payment to be returned to
the landowner.
FISCAL EFFECT
To the extent this bill results in reduced administrative work
for projects that do not proceed to completion, there will be
significant savings to the Department of Conservation, estimated
to be several hundred thousand dollars. The cancellation fee is
paid by the landowner to the state and helps fund the Department
of Conservation. However, the actual amount of savings is
dependent on the number of cancellation requests that are
processed but not consummated.
COMMENTS
AB 2351
Page 2
1) Purpose. According to the author, AB 2351 would require a
refundable deposit of five percent of the total estimated
cancellation fee to be paid when a tentative cancellation is
approved. The author argues by requiring a deposit, the bill
will reduce the number of tentative cancellations and
therefore unreimbursed work. However, the author states
requiring a deposit will not interfere with projects that are
both expected to meet the criteria for cancellation and
proceed to cancellation. The author also points out the
property owner will either have the deposit credited towards
the cancellation or returned, so this bill poses no additional
financial risk to the property owner.
2)Background . The Williamson 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 compatible uses. In
return, county assessors lower the assessed value of the lands
to reflect their use as agriculture or open space instead of
the market value. Although landowners enter into Williamson
Act contracts with local jurisdictions, the Department of
Conservation oversees the contracts for the state. As of
January 2009, approximately 15 million reported acres in 53
counties were enrolled under the Williamson Act statewide.
3)Administrative process. Currently, a landowner seeking to
cancel a Williamson Act contract provides notice and the
proposed alternative land use to the contracting local
jurisdiction. At that point, the Department and the local
jurisdiction work on dual tracks to determine the
appropriateness of cancellation.
Upon certification of a final valuation, the landowner is
assessed a cancellation fee which is due upon completion of
the cancellation. This cancellation fee is 12.5% of the
unrestricted value of the property and is paid to the state
and helps fund the Department of Conservation. However, if
the cancellation is not completed, the Department is not
reimbursed for its workload associated with a cancellation
review. Over the five-year period ending in November 2011,
there were 285 tentative cancellations, but only 57 of those
requests proceeded to a cancellation.
4)There is no registered opposition to this bill.
AB 2351
Page 3
Analysis Prepared by : Roger Dunstan / APPR. / (916) 319-2081