Saticoy & Wells Community Plan & Development ... - City Of Ventura

Saticoy & Wells Community Plan and Code EIRSection 4.2 Agricultural ResourcesPotential Issues for Agricultural Interests• Restrictions on activity• Restrictions on conversion• Loss of revenue and competitiveness• Competition for water and land• Pilferage, trespassing, and littering• Dust from adjacent construction activityd. Regulatory Setting. A number of state and local regulatory mechanisms are in placeto preserve farmland and agricultural activity. These are described below. Figure 4.2-2 showslands that are affected by one or more of these policies.Williamson Act/Land Conservation Act. A primary tool to preserve farmlands is theCalifornia Land Conservation Act (LCA) or Williamson Act contract program, established in1965. Under provisions of the Act, private landowners may voluntarily enter into a long-termcontract (minimum of 10 years) with cities and counties to form agricultural preserves andmaintain their property in agricultural or open space uses in return for a reduced property taxassessment based on the agricultural value of the property. The term of an LCA contract isgenerally ten years and the contract automatically renews itself each year for another ten-yearperiod, unless a Notice of Non-Renewal is filed or the contract is cancelled. State GovernmentCode Section 51282 provides specific findings that must be made for the approval of LCAcontract cancellations. Ventura County entered the program in 1969, and in 2007 the Countyhad 907 LCA (10-year) contracts and 57 FSZA/LCA (20-year) contracts in the unincorporatedarea, for a total of approximately 128,900 acres under contract (Ventura County PlanningDivision, 2008). There are existing LCA contract properties adjacent to the east and northwestof the Project Area. However, no LCA contract properties are located within the Project Area.As such, the development facilitated under the Project would not conflict with an existing LCAcontract. Figure 4.2-2 shows the properties in the vicinity of the Project Area that are underLCA contracts.Save Our Agricultural Resources (SOAR) Initiative. In November 1995, a majority ofvoters (52%) in Ventura passed the Save Our Agricultural Resources (SOAR) Ordinance alsocalled the Agricultural Lands Preservation Initiative. The Ventura County Save Open Spaceand Agricultural Resources Initiative, Measure B, passed in November 1998 by a 63% majority.Both measures generally prevent changes in specified land use categories (of the City’sComprehensive Plan and the County General Plan) unless the land use change is approved by amajority of voters. The City SOAR Ordinance reaffirms and readopts the Agriculturedesignations defined in the Ventura General Plan until the year 2030. Portions of the ProjectArea along the Santa Clara River in the Southeast neighborhood are subject to the SOAROrdinance (see Figure 4.2-2). However, the development that would be facilitated under theProject does not propose any land use change on the agriculture lands under the SOAROrdinance. As such, there would be no conflict with existing agriculture lands that are underthe SOAR Ordinance as a result of the development facilitated by the Project.4.2-5City of Ventura