AB 1961: CALIFORNIA LAND USE AND PLANNING BILL WOULD REQUIRE COUNTIES TO ADOPT DETAILED PLANS TO ENSURE THE RETENTION OF LAND FOR AGRICULTURE

Co-sponsored by the American Farmland Trust, AB 1961 would require California counties to adopt detailed plans to retain land for farming and ranching. Introduced by Assembly Agriculture Chair Susan Talamantes Eggman and styled as the Sustainable Farmland Strategy Act, the bill is a response to the rapidly increasing rate at which California farmland is converted to non-agricultural uses. According to the American Farmland Trust, approximately 30,000 acres of farmland are converted to non-agricultural uses each year. At this rate, one million acres of farmland will be converted to non-agricultural uses by 2050. Although many local governments have farmland protection plans in place, the bill’s sponsors allege that counties have failed to follow through when it comes to implementing the guiding principles in those plans. They contend that the Sustainable Farmland Strategy Act will provide an opportunity for counties to reassess their plans and policies affecting farmland, and to promote a stronger balance between land development and California’s $45 billion agriculture industry.

The bill targets local level municipalities, who have jurisdiction over the majority of the state’s agricultural land and who play a key role in regulating land use. If enacted, it will require counties to inventory their agriculturally zoned land and to develop clear goals and policies for retaining farmland. Counties would have until January 2, 2018 to adopt a Sustainable Farmland Strategy, which must include a map and inventory of all agriculturally zoned land within the county, a statement of the county’s goals, strategies, and related policies and ordinances, and a description of the county’s efforts to retain agriculturally zoned land and to mitigate for its conversion to non-agricultural uses. Counties would also be required to create a webpage dedicated to their Sustainable Farmland Strategy and to provide general data regarding agricultural land use within the county. In an effort to complement California’s Williamson Act, which offers tax incentives for landowners who put their land to agricultural uses, the webpage must include a map showing the location of any land enrolled in the Williamson Act program. According to the bill, funding for its implementation will be sourced through local agencies’ levying of service charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the development of a Sustainable Farmland Strategy program.

The bill also requires counties to include agricultural land retention and mitigation measures in their general plan guidelines, including farmland mitigation ordinances,  conservation easement purchase programs, urban growth boundaries, and economic incentives to promote local agriculture. Although the bill exempts counties with less than 4% of their land base in agriculture, according to the 2007 USDA Agricultural census only four counties in California would be exempt from the Act’s requirements. In light of this potentially broad-reaching application, the Sustainable Farmland Strategy Act could have a significant impact on land use in California and on California’s agriculture industry.

The full text of AB 1961 can be found here: Link