Farm Bureau Sues Government Over Land Use

In an action aimed at preserving prime farmland and protecting the integrity of California’s main farmland-conservation program, the California Farm Bureau Federation filed a lawsuit this week that charged the Fresno County Board of Supervisors with overstepping its authority when it authorized construction of a utility-scale solar power project on prime farmland.

In October, county supervisors voted to cancel a Williamson Act farmland-conservation contract on 90 acres of prime Class I soil, to allow the parcel to be developed for a large solar power plant. The Farm Bureau said the Williamson Act requires that a proposed contract cancellation meet rigorous findings. For example, to find that a cancellation is in the public interest, the benefits of the proposed project must substantially outweigh the objectives of the farmland-protection program, and there cannot be other, unprotected land available for the same use.

In its lawsuit, the Farm Bureau said Fresno County supervisors “have completely and repeatedly ignored the unanimous recommendations and advice” from state agencies, local advisory committees and its own staff, that the request for cancellation did not meet the requirements and that the Williamson Act contract should not be cancelled.

Williamson Act contracts include an agreement from landowners to maintain their property in agricultural use for 10 years. In return, landowners receive a property tax assessment based on the agricultural value of the property rather than on its development value. The act has been hailed as invaluable in preserving prime farmland in a state that is not only the nation’s top agricultural state, it has very high land values.

California Farm Bureau President Paul Wenger said the organization filed suit to assure that large-scale solar power facilities are located in appropriate places.
“Farmers recognize the potential of solar power,” Wenger said, “and California farmers lead the nation in the installation of on-farm solar power generators. But pressure to build utility-scale solar plants has touched off a land rush that threatens thousands of acres of prime farmland. There are millions of acres of marginal land in California. That’s where these power plants should go, so we can conserve prime farmland to grow the crops that sustain our state and nation.”

The suit, filed in Fresno County Superior Court, aims to halt cancellation of the Williamson Act contract and to require the county to comply with the act in any further cancellation requests.

Source: Fresno County Farm Bureau