1,400 Acres Added to Farmland Preserve
Ventura County’s farmland preservation bank got its biggest deposit in nearly two decades on Tuesday, as the Board of Supervisors approved contracts with landowners adding 1,140 acres to the county’s agricultural preserve.
Under the state’s Land Conservation Act--commonly known as the Williamson Act--property tax breaks are given to farmers and ranchers who agree not to develop their lands for at least 10 years.
On Tuesday, supervisors approved 44 contracts, totaling 3,125 acres, with landowners reenlisting or seeking entry into the farmland preservation program. Of that total, 1,140 acres came into the program for the first time, mostly through the expansion of already established preserves.
The 1,140 acres represents a steady increase from 1990 through 1996, officials said, and the largest net gain of acreage since 1978.
“The program has been quite successful in encouraging people to stay in agriculture,” said Milada Allen,who manages the program for the county. “I’m quite proud of it.”
Concerned that California was paving over some of the world’s best farmland, the Legislature created the farmland preservation program in 1965.
The law requires that farmlands be valued on their production, not on prices speculators pay for comparable parcels.
About one-fourth of all privately owned land in the county, or 142,042 acres, is enrolled in the program.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
