California - MONTEREY COUNTY
AGRICULTURAL AND HISTORICAL LAND CONSERVANCY
Countywide program - Formed in 1985 - researched by Al Sokolow
OVERVIEW - Monterey County has a long Pacific
coastline and is well-known as a tourist destination. Its major agricultural
asset is the Salinas Valley, a 50-mile long inland region that grows much of
the nation's fresh vegetables and accounts for the major part of the county's
$2.9 billion in annual farm market receipts-the fourth highest in the nation.
Here is where the Monterey County Agricultural and Historical Land Conservancy,
a nonprofit land trust, concentrates its easement work. A number of the easements
acquired by the Conservancy are strategically located on the western edges of
several Valley cities, forcing the redirection of their expansion away from
the best agricultural soils on the Valley floor to less productive hillsides
to the east. The Conservancy maintains its active acquisition record with only
one staff person and a small operating budget.
EASEMENT ACTIVITY - 7,748 agricultural acres
in 20 properties: 82 percent cropland (mainly vegetables and grapes) and 18
percent grazing. The Conservancy also owns in fee two coastal farms totaling
317 acres, that grow high value crops (artichokes and strawberries) and generate
income for operating and acquisition purposes. Three non-agricultural easements
totaling 135 acres are also held by the Conservancy, including 10 acres in a
city preserve and 125 acres devoted to wetlands and habitat protection.
Goals: No specific program goals.
Other Easement Programs: No other local programs.
FUNDING
Acquisition Spending to Date: About $12 million for agricultural
easements.
Revenues: State funds (1988 state bond act, Coastal Conservancy,
Farmland Conservancy Program), local fundraising, foundation support and federal
funds. The Monterey Conservancy was the first California program to receive
funds from the Federal Farmland Protection Program.
GOVERNANCE - The organization is a nonprofit land trust governed by a seven-member board of directors. Most board members have agricultural and local government connections. Unlike many nonprofit land trusts, the Conservancy is not a general membership organization.
STAFF AND OPERATING BUDGET - The only staff person is the managing director, employed under a management services contract. He is a former board member and founder of the Conservancy. The annual operating budget is about $90,000.
ORIGINS - The Conservancy was formed by a small number of residents-mostly associated with local agriculture-and includes leaders in county and state government. Their efforts were in part stimulated by the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT), the nation's first specifically agricultural land trust. The Conservancy's formation was assisted by advice and training provided by the Trust for Public Lands (TPL) and American Farmland Trust (AFT). The first easement was acquired in 1985.
ACQUISITION PROCESS AND STRATEGY - The Conservancy
board makes all decisions. Not employing a rating system or a formal application
process, the board and the managing director exercise considerable discretion
in seeking easement candidates in selective locations. The major emphasis is
to target properties around cities in the vegetable-growing Salinas Valley.
Much attention is given to establishing and maintaining rapport with select
farmland owners.
Rating of Parcels: Not quantitative, see below.
Other Criteria: A 1985 operating plan identifies as prime acquisition
factors: the quality of the agricultural, natural and historical resources;
the magnitude of threat; location; and probability of funding. The use of a
"clear-cut formula" is expressly denied and emphasis is given to the
"exercise of careful judgment."
CONNECTIONS TO LOCAL PLANNING AND LAND USE POLICIES
- The Conservancy's easement activities complement county planning and vice
versa-although the two organizations are not formally linked. County planning
and land use policies generally support the protection of prime cropland in
the Salinas Valley and the direction of urban development to the cities away
from agricultural areas. This is also the policy of the Monterey Local Agency
Formation Commission (LAFCO), the state-mandated boundary control body that
reviews and approves proposals for city expansion. Proposals were under consideration
in 2002-in the update of the county's General Plan-to cite the easement technique
as a means of maintaining urban-rural delineations and to create a program for
mitigating farmland loss by placing easements on other farmland. There are some
tensions, however, between the Conservancy and cities in the Salinas Valley,
where easements have blocked city expansion to the west and redirected it to
the east. While this moves development to less productive agricultural soils
on slopping land, it also imposes higher costs for the extension of municipal
sewer and water systems.
Zoning: Agricultural zoning allows one unit to 40 acres (1:40)
residential density in most agricultural areas including the Salinas Valley
and 1:150 in grazing areas, generally in the southeastern part of the county.
DEMOGRAPHICS
2000 Population: 401,762
1990-2000 Population Change: +46,100 residents; + 12 percent
AGRICULTURAL LAND
1.5 million acres: 25.1 percent cropland (including 174,000 prime acres
mainly in the Salinas Valley) and the rest in grazing.
Conversion to Urban Use: 8,960 total agricultural acres in 1990-2000
(0.6 percent of 1990 base), including 4,732 cropland or important farmland acres
(2.0 percent of base) and 3,898 prime acres (2.2 percent). (State conversion
data)
OTHER AGRICULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS
2000 Market Value: $2.9 billion Number of Farms: 1,209
Principal Commodities: Vegetables, fruits, nuts, grapes, nursery
MAP NARRATIVE - EASEMENT GEOGRAPH
(PROGRAM MAP)
Easements held by the Conservancy stretch almost the entire 100-mile
south-north length of the county, with a couple in the coastal area near the
mouth of the Salinas River and several in the grazing canyons of south county.
Most are located in the 50-mile long Salinas Valley-the narrow and long inland
fertile valley that is the county's principal crop growing region. While seemingly
scattered throughout the valley, the majority are situated adjacent or close
to city borders. As shown in the inset maps of the King City and Gonzales areas,
easements in strategic locations generally block city expansion onto the most
productive agricultural lands to the west.