News Subscribe  to Our Newsletter Sign  up for Email Updates CGF  In the News Press  Inquiries Past  Articles Calendar			The  Williamson Act  Closing loopholes in technical language turns tricky by Brian Schmidt Nearly 40 years ago, the California Legislature passed  the California Land Conservation Act of 1965. Commonly referred to as  the Williamson  Act, this was designed to preserve agricultural lands and open space  - and it has proven to be remarkably effective at doing so. Santa Clara County's many properties under Williamson Act contracts are supposed to stay in  agricultural production, but some landowners have not followed the rules,  and are developing these properties. The Act enables local governments to enter into contracts  with private landowners who agree to protect their lands' open space or  agricultural values in exchange for reduced property taxes; the tax revenue  lost by the counties is made up for by State subsidies. Having used the Williamson Act since its inception,  Santa Clara County now has more than 362,000 acres of land under Williamson  Act contracts - a whopping 43% of the County's land area. County seeks to stop landowners from skirting requirements  Unfortunately, a recent state audit found that some Santa Clara County  landowners who had entered into these agreements have been ignoring Williamson  Act requirements and developing their properties. In response, the County  is now adjusting how the program operates, and Committee for Green Foothills  is jumping in to help ensure that the fix does not cause its own problems.  With these proposed reforms, the County is upsetting  some of the same developers that have traditionally used the loophole  in the lot line adjustment process - a loophole the Committee helped close  last summer. Again, developers are pushing for as weak and loophole-ridden  a fix as possible. Committee for Green Foothills needs to be a counterweight  to that pressure on the County, fighting the efforts to destroy agricultural  and open space uses.  Closing loophole not straightforward The Williamson Act is filled with technical language and complexities  that make fixing the system's problems rather tricky. While the Committee  supports the idea of giving financial incentives to landowners that preserve  their property, we don't want that system abused. Reacting to the current  abuse problem, the County is proposing to exclude from the Williamson  Act's reduced tax rates those "problem" properties that are  not being used for agriculture.  But closing this loophole involves a couple of catches.  First, we don't want any properties wrongfully excluded from eligibility  for Williamson Act tax reductions because then those owners will have  no incentive to hold back from developing their properties. Second, we may want to distinguish between land that  just happens not to have been farmed and land that is inherently unsuitable  for agriculture. If current owners are not farming, they should not get  Williamson Act benefits - but permanently excluding their lands from future  inclusion under the Williamson Act may be throwing the baby out with the  bathwater.  Finally, the Committee is working to understand  better how changes in this language might affect Coyote Valley and Almaden  Valley, two areas that are threatened by sprawl spilling out from San  Jose. We don't want to lose any opportunities to protect these important  regions.  Both statewide and locally, the Williamson Act has  proven to be an effective measure for controlling urbanization and helping  to preserve our remaining farmlands and ranchlands. While Santa Clara  County ponders the best way to close this loophole, the Committee will  continue our research and our work with the County to find the best solution  to saving this important legislation. Published October 2003 in Green  Footnotes. Page last updated November 6, 2003

	Photo courtesy of Bob Holden.