Planning Issues in Agriculture

1. Planning Issues in Agriculture Laws and Regulations Lecture 6

2. Laws dealing with growth? • There is no law to deal with growth management (in 12 states, but not ours) • 1974 – law presented, but not passed by legislature – up to local government to manage growth, how much, what type, where, timeline

3. Growth Regulations (Law) • Now: General Plan • Every city and county is required to adopt a General Plan • Functional Equivalent of a Constitution.

4. General PlanGrowth management must be part of the Plan Mandatory elements (7) 1. Land use element 2. Open space element 3. Conservation of resources 4. Circulation element 5. Noise element 6. Housing element 7. Safety element

5. County/Cities Planning • Free to adopt optional elements in the General Plan. • Once adopted, they become as important as Mandatory elements. • Example: Optional element that has been adopted is “agricultural element” • Focuses on effort to protect ag land • If there is a problem with general plan, there will be problems with zoning.

6. Counties and Cities with Agricultural Elements

7. Government Regulation • Historical tool of a protective plan for agriculture • General plan must be carried out and the most important is zoning • Is also the most controversial (zoning)

8. Local Zoning • Divides jurisdiction into parts (zones) • Establishes what is permitted, prohibited, permitted with permits • What happens if you change zoning (rezoning) – controversial with property rights

9. How to zone to protect ag? • Set up special Ag buffer zones (typically in counties) ie. Turlock, Merced, Ceres • Set minimum parcel size, not to go below a certain acreage (1, 5, 10, 20, 40) • Minimum parcel sizes have increased over the years to restrict rural development and farmland conversion

10. Non conforming parcels…why • Subdivisions urbanizing land – • all done locally, regulatory power of government • Reliance on Local Agency Formation Committee (LAFCO) • Affects zoning…

11. LAFCO • Non-regulatory tool – local state agency – is most important in terms of development – • A city cannot expand boundaries without LAFCO. • approves annexations • sphere of influence – ultimate growth boundary in 57 out of 58 counties (SF city and county) • Must take into account Ag land being lost

12. LAFCO…4 major functions… • To review and approve or disapprove proposals for changes in the boundaries or organization of cities and special districts in the county, applications for activation of special district latent powers, and applications to provide service outside of a city or district boundary; • To establish and periodically update the sphere of influence or planned service area boundary for each city and special district; • To initiate and assist in studies of existing local government agencies with the goal of improving the efficiency and reducing the costs of providing urban services; and • To provide assistance to other governmental agencies and the public concerning changes in local government organization and boundaries.

13. LAFCO continued… • Committee made up of at least 5 members + 2 local optional members • 2 board of supervisors • 2 city representatives • 1 public – selected by 4 • This is a state agency – not disputable – very powerful

14. CEQA – California Environmental Quality Act • Also affects the General Plan and zoning • Key to a general plan – prepares environmental report • The basic goal is to develop and maintain a high-quality environment now and in the future

15. CEQA Goals… Specific goals of CEQA are for California's public agencies to: 1) identify the significant environmental effects of their actions; and, either 2) avoid those significant environmental effects, where feasible; or 3) mitigate those significant environmental effects, where feasible.

16. CEQA Applies to… • “Projects" proposed to be undertaken or requiring approval by State and local government agencies. • "Projects" are activities which have the potential to have a physical impact on the environment and may include: • the enactment of zoning ordinances, • the issuance of conditional use permits and • the approval of tentative subdivision maps.

17. CEQA Approvals…lead agency • Where a project requires approvals from more than one public agency, CEQA requires ones of these public agencies to serve as the "lead agency”. • A "lead agency" must complete the environmental review process required by CEQA. (normally the planning department)

18. CEQA Environmental Review The most basic steps of the environmental review process are: 1) Determine if the activity is a "project" subject to CEQA; 2) Determine if the "project" is exempt from CEQA; 3) Perform an Initial Study to identify the environmental impacts of the project and determine whether the identified impacts are "significant".

19. CEQA environmental review continued… Based on its findings of "significance", the lead agency prepares one of the following environmental review documents: • Negative Declaration if it finds no "significant" impacts; • Mitigated Negative Declaration if it finds "significant" impacts but revises the project to avoid or mitigate those significant impacts; • Environmental Impact Report (EIR) if it finds "significant" impacts.

20. CEQA environmental review continued… While there is no ironclad definition of "significance", the State CEQA Guidelines provides criteria to lead agencies in determining whether a project may have significant effects. (Article 5 of CEQA Law).

21. Environmental Impact Report (EIR) • The purpose of an EIR is to provide State and local agencies and the general public with detailed information on the potentially significant environmental effects which a proposed project is likely to have and to list ways which the significant environmental effects may be minimized and indicate alternatives to the project.

22. Now back to Zoning…