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Board OKs five new Williamson Act contracts and broadens guidelines for open-space farmland
Summary
Supervisors approved five new Land Conservation Act (Williamson Act) contracts covering about 152 acres and adopted guideline changes that allow certain agricultural uses on open-space‑zoned land under defined conditions. The board also directed staff to review the animal-unit table for specialty species such as bees.
The Board of Supervisors on Dec. 17 approved five new Land Conservation Act (Williamson Act) contracts and adopted revisions to the county's LCA guidelines to allow qualified agricultural operations on parcels zoned open space under specific conditions.
What passed: The board unanimously approved five contracts recommended by staff for 2024: two small avocado and lemon orchards in Santa Paula (13.5 and about 30 acres), a 33‑acre lemon project in Oxnard, about 69 acres of cane berries in Camarillo and 15.8 acres of avocados and lemons on Old Balchem Road. Taken together staff said the parcels total roughly 151.6 acres.
Guideline changes: Staff also proposed and the board adopted amendments to permit certain open‑space parcels to be eligible for Williamson Act contracts when they meet minimum utilization and acreage thresholds — for example, irrigated orchards on 20–25 acre parcels must meet a 75% utilization threshold for a 10‑year LCA contract. Staff said the change is intended to reconcile the LCA program with fire, brush-management and other land-use realities and to make county rules consistent with state law. The Resource Management Agency emphasized that the changes are accompanied by financial-impact estimates: if 100% of eligible open-space land enrolled under the new criteria, annual property‑tax revenue losses would total approximately $1,000,000; a more likely 10% uptake would amount to about $100,000 in annual foregone county general‑fund revenue.
Board discussion: The agricultural community and taxpayer organizations spoke in favor of the changes at the hearing; staff and appellant organizations negotiated clarifications including more flexible oversight for certain screening, correspondence methods (registered mail allowed) and a staff-directed review of the animal‑unit equivalency table to accommodate beekeeping and other specialty operations.
Ending: The board directed staff to implement the guideline changes and to return with any future refinements noted in the APAC record; existing LCA contracts and area-plan building‑coverage rules remain in force where they apply.
