Land Scam Antidote

Speculators using two arcane provisions of state law have been able to drive up the price of land targeted for preservation by threatening to develop the land. This has dearly cost the state and nonprofit land trusts. Gov. Gray Davis can put an end to this legal but unethical practice by signing into law SB 497, by Sen. Byron Sher (D-Stanford). We strongly urge the governor to do so.

Landowners’ abuse of “certificates of compliance” and “lot line adjustments” was exposed in a series of articles a few months ago by Times staff writers Kenneth R. Weiss and John Johnson. Among the threatened parcels was the legendary Hearst Ranch on the San Luis Obispo County coast, but the process has cropped up farther north and in the Santa Monica Mountains as well. One developer reaped a $20-million profit on land in Big Sur, the bill’s sponsors said.

The developers, if they can prove the land was ever divided into plots, even a century or more ago, have been able to shift the plots anywhere within the property. By shifting subdivision to desirable shorefront, they greatly increase the land’s sale value. Sher’s bill would prevent this.

Realtors and legitimate developers opposed the bill, arguing the changes would hurt average homeowners as well as speculators. But Sher, a land law expert, says his bill would fulfill the original purpose of the law by making it easier for neighbors to achieve friendly lot line adjustments.

These big land scams are intolerable. Davis can stop them with his signature on SB 497. If any problem does emerge for smaller landowners, follow-up legislation can be considered in January and quickly passed into law.