GILROY
– The task force charged with making a farmland preservation
policy for this expanding city is splitting up. Not for good, just
until March 10.
GILROY – The task force charged with making a farmland preservation policy for this expanding city is splitting up. Not for good, just until March 10.
The frustrated group has decided to break up into special subcommittees to more efficiently tackle the pressing issues facing them. The group has been meeting since January to revise a farmland preservation bill City Council and open space activists called lax when it was presented last fall.
“I haven’t worked with subcommittees of a task force (which is a subcommittee itself) before,” said Gilroy Planner Cydney Casper. “Hopefully by narrowing things down between a couple of people there will be more focus, and we can make headway on these issues.”
The 11-member group will split into five teams of two people, each team responding to criticism laid down last fall by City Council, the state’s anti-sprawl agency, attorneys for Save Open Space Gilroy and other farmland stakeholders.
Task force Chairman Richard Barberi devised the system. He did not include himself on any of the teams.
“I want to play more of an administrative role,” said Barberi, who owns a farmland parcel off Luchessa Avenue he is hoping to sell some day. “I’m very prejudiced on this issue just like anyone, and I thought my role as chairperson would be to resolve any problems these teams might have.”
Only a portion of its original farmland bill has been re-evaluated by the group so far. And even that produced no significant changes.
The group still wants to charge farmland developers less than market value when mitigation requirements force them to preserve agriculture. The group also wants mitigation to only apply when developers build on more than 10 acres of prime farmland.
At first glance, the subcommittee system seems destined to bring additional confusion to the group that has spent more than a year hashing out a workable farmland preservation plan.
Each group must research what stakeholders say about a variety of controversial policy issues. The issues will be resolved by a vote of the full task force, which will forward their final recommendations to City Council in April.
Barberi defended the system Thursday.
“I’d rather see two people research something, and if they disagree, let them make their points to the full group and the group will vote on it,” Barberi said.
Casper said the team meetings will be subject to California’s open meeting laws. Meetings will be agendized and announced to the public in advance. They will also be open for public comment.
In other task force business, member Alex Kennett, who represents the Open Space Authority – a regional land banking agency – said he would gather a variety of appraisals on ag properties in South County. The information could help the group resolve a long-simmering disagreement over how much it costs to buy prime ag land around Gilroy.
If market-value ag land is as expensive as some claim – $60,000 an acre in some cases – development could move from Gilroy to other areas with less stringent preservation policies, farmland owners and builders claim. In theory, a developer would build in an area where they could pay a cheaper mitigation fee.
Open space advocates say the ag prices are not as costly as some claim. They also argue that building on South County’s last remaining farmland should come at a steep price.
