Genesee County Agricultural and Farmland Protection Plan

Agriculture and Farmland Protection Plan
In 1998 California signed into law what is being called “Super Williamson Act”. It allows for the
conversion of existing Williamson Act agreements into 20-year contracts, thereby forming
‘farmland security zones.’ In exchange for the extended term, landowners receive a package of
additional benefits, including a 35% reduction in property taxes beyond the reduction calculated
under traditional contracts. Other benefits include protection from annexation by cities and
special districts, a reduced special tax rate for urban-related services, and a ban on school
districts condemning and buying land in farmland security zones. There are no provisions for
canceling contracts before the term expires. As a result of these longer contracts, additional funds
are provided by the state to the counties to make up a portion of the lost tax revenues. Since its
adoption eleven counties have applied to participate. In addition, the state has recently
dramatically ramped up funding of its purchase of development rights program.
Strategic Mapping in Delaware
An unusual convergence of circumstances in Delaware as it began its farmland protection efforts
turned out to be a blessing. Faced with an approved but unfunded state program and a legal
requirement to map strategic farmland in the state before buying any development rights, the
Delaware Department of Agriculture embarked on a strategic mapping exercise that still leads
the nation and is an integral part of a booming (and now well-funded) PDR program. They
modified the LESA (Land Evaluation and Site Assessment) system to suit an area-wide analysis
as opposed to a site-specific analysis. It incorporates factors such as natural soils groups,
availability of sewer, land use/land cover, percent of area in agriculture, agricultural investment
and the presence of natural areas. The result is a map with five different colors indicating lowest
to highest priority for farmland preservation in the agricultural portions of the state. The ‘color’
of the map area where a particular farm is located then corresponds to half of the points that farm
scores on the PDR ranking system should it apply to sell an easement. The maps were the results
of years of testing and public input. Using this method, state resources are directed to the most
productive agricultural resources and operations that have the best chance of remaining viable.
Delaware also has a situation in which agricultural zoning in its three counties is very weak and
function largely as rural residential development zones. Individual counties show little
willingness to do anything about the agricultural zones, nor do they contribute matching dollars
to the state PDR program. However, since creating an ‘agricultural districts’ is the only way to
realize tax benefits, right-to-farm protections, or to be eligible to sell an easement, district
participation is extremely high and may, in fact, be functioning as ‘de facto’ agricultural
production zoning. Matching state funds is accomplished with landowner discounts to their full
easement values. (See Appendix IV for program description and strategic mapping criteria.)
Responding Quickly to Save Critical Farms in Carroll County, Maryland
Located within easy commuting distance of both Baltimore and Washington, DC, Carroll
County, Maryland set a goal for itself in the late 1970’s of permanently protecting 100,000 acres
of farmland. They enacted 1:20 cluster zoning (a change from 1:1 zoning) to stabilize the land
base and began vigorous participation in the state purchase of development rights program. To
date they have agricultural easements on over 33,000 acres. However, they discovered that the
Columbia, MD
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