GILROY
– It’s been a struggle coming up with a plan to preserve the
farmland that surrounds this rapidly growing city. Now, however,
most City Council members agree that a task force assigned to
develop the plan is on the right track.
GILROY – It’s been a struggle coming up with a plan to preserve the farmland that surrounds this rapidly growing city. Now, however, most City Council members agree that a task force assigned to develop the plan is on the right track.
“We’re right in there,” Mayor Al Pinheiro said on Tuesday. “I think it shows that when people work together, … if you’re at the table for the right reason, you’ll find a compromise that will satisfy everyone.”
A study session Monday evening put Agricultural Mitigation Task Force and Council members together for the first time in several months. Council members – particularly former mayor Tom Springer – rejected an earlier version of the policy that task force members spent roughly a year drafting.
The point of the plan is to ensure that, when farmland gets developed, an equal amount of farmland is protected from development elsewhere.
Here’s what’s new in the plan since the fall:
• Every single acre of farmland that is developed must be mitigated with an acre elsewhere. Before, the task force wanted land to be preserved only when 10 acres or more of so-called “prime farmland” or 40 acres of “farmland of statewide importance” was developed.
• Instead of having to pay the cost of buying new farmland at fair market value, a developer need only pay the cost of buying the development rights, known as an “easement.” A land trust could buy an easement on a farmer’s land, guaranteeing it would never be developed, but the farmer could still work the land.
An easement costs about a third as much as buying the land, according to Nancy Richardson, executive director of the Land Trust for Santa Clara County and a task force member.
“You can buy three times the amount of land for the same amount of money,” Councilman Bob Dillon said after the meeting. “It’s a win-win situation.”
Dillon predicted the plan would pass without much more tinkering.
“It’ll happen because it makes common sense,” he said.
Councilman Paul Correa agreed that the plan is “going down the right path.”
Pinheiro called the latest draft a pretty balanced document, but added: “There’s just a couple of things that need to get solidified.”
He, like Bill Lindsteadt of the Gilroy Economic Development Corporation, questions why undeveloped land within city limits might need to be mitigated if developed.
Councilman Charles Morales said he previously supported limiting mitigation to plots of more than 10 acres (prime land) or 40 acres (otherwise), but now he is ready to compromise.
Councilman Craig Gartman had questions about the policy’s long-term implications.
“How long before we run out of land to purchase?” Gartman asked at the study session. City planner Cydney Casper said she would research the question
If the Land Trust and Open Space Authority close two preservation deals currently under way, she figured there would be about 1,200 acres of farmland protected forever against development.
