County supervisor calls state Department of Conservation’s
statements ‘scare tactics’
San Jose – Land owners who transfer their property from an agricultural tax break to an open space tax break under a county-sanctioned program could face legal action and fines levied by the state.
County planners and politicians want to let landowners in the Williamson Act transfer their properties to the state’s Open Space Easement Act, a law that doesn’t always provide Williamson’s generous tax break but has fewer development restrictions.
The transfer is intended to provide relief to potentially hundreds of landowners who don’t farm their land and would not be able to develop their property without paying a large fine or waiting a decade for their contract to expire. Under the county plan, those who choose to move into the open space act will be able to build immediately.
But officials with the California Department of Conservation, which oversees the Williamson Act, are against a wholesale shift of properties into the open space act. Tuesday, a DOC spokesman said his agency would go after the county and individual landowners if it believes transfers are made against the letter and spirit of the Williamson Act.
“We’re not like the highway patrol handing out fines; it doesn’t work that fast. But we’ve made it clear we’ll work to enforce the laws,” spokesman Don Drysdale said. “We have concerns about a wholesale shift. They need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.”
The DOC does not enforce the Open Space Easement Act, but it does have the authority to deny the cessation of a Williamson Act contract. If DOC officials are opposed to a major shift to the open space act, the agency could withhold payments that replace some of the tax revenue the county loses to the Act.
Drysdale said the agency would go to court to prevent development or invoke AB 1492, a 2004 state law that levies a fine equal to 25 percent of a property’s market value to owners who develop in contravention of Williamson Act rules.
“These aren’t threats, just options,” Drysdale said, adding that he didn’t know if the DOC would sue the county to prevent a mass transfer.
“We’re not there yet. We’ll have to see.”
Tuesday, Santa Clara County supervisors delayed until March the adoption of new rules governing Williamson, but it intends to allow property owners whose land is at least five acres to transfer to the open space act with few development restrictions.
County planners say each proposed transferred will be evaluated and must be approved by county supervisors.
Such transfers are legal under Williamson, but the DOC may not agree that landowners whose properties don’t meet Williamson requirements can make the switch.
Santa Clara Supervisor Don Gage called the DOC statements a “scare tactic,” from an agency that lacks the authority to back its claims.
“They want people to think ‘oh my God, I’ve got the whole state of California after me,’ ” Gage said. “The contract is with the county, not with the state. If they have an issue with us, they can come after us. The only way to resolve that is to take us to court.”
The county has been working in earnest on new guidelines for a year. In 2002, a DOC audit found numerous problems with the way the county administered the act since its inception in 1965. Poor management of the law created hundreds of parcels in the county that receive the act’s protection but don’t meet it’s requirements.
The new guidelines include a method to evict hundreds of substandard parcels from the act and set new standards for determining who is and is not a legitimate farmer. In their draft form, the guidelines include a provision to allow any property five acres or larger to transfer to an open space easement. The easements would last at least 15 years.
That provision is an admission of guilt by county planners, who say they helped create the county’s Williamson mess by allowing large tracts of land to be carved into home sites while under the act. And since the county began monitoring Williamson properties three years ago, many landowners who bought property under Williamson contracts have not been able to get a building permit because they do not farm.
What is the Williamson Act?
– Also known as the California Land Conservation Act, Williamson is a 1965 law intended to protect farmland by giving farmers a property tax break and reducing incentives to develop the land. More than three years after a state audit found that Santa Clara County has never properly administered the law, county supervisors are poised to adopt new rules ensuring that only legitimate farmers are covered. Of the county’s 3,000 Williamson parcels, nearly 1,200 either have no agriculture or do not meet the law’s minimum size requirements of 10 acres for prime land, which supports most row crops and orchards, and 40 for non-prime land, typically used for ranching.
What’s Next?
Tuesday, supervisors again delayed making a decision on final rules for the act, in part because the California department of Conservation may make changes to the way timberlands are treated under the law. The supervisors will attempt to finalize rules March 14.
