A countywide initiative to protect farmland, which may change the face of land use and planning in Merced County for the next three decades, will go before the voters in November.
Merced County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted Tuesday to send the initiative to the ballot instead of enacting the initiative without changes.
The Save Farmland initiative is meant to prevent sprawl and give voters a say when farmland is rezoned for residential uses. If passed, it could transform the way the county goes about planning for land use by severely curtailing the Board of Supervisors' ability to act on land use issues, say opponents.
Backers counter that there would be no need for such an initiative if the Board of Supervisors had properly planned in the first place.
"The whole paradigm of local government would be shifted," said Merced County Supervisor Deidre Kelsey, who has a number of concerns about the initiative.
Supervisors John Pedrozo, Hub Walsh and Kelsey, as well as a representative from UC Merced, took issue with some provisions of the proposed initiative, mirroring a legal and economic analysis of the initiative's possible impacts on Merced County, which were accepted by the board Tuesday.
While the county's legal analysis found no fatal legal issues with the measure, the report set out a series of potential issues.
In a presentation before the board, Mike Calabrese, chief deputy county counsel, said the initiative could force the county to amend its general plan update, since some parts of the current plan could contradict the initiative.
Calabrese also said it's unclear how the initiative would impact already approved community development plans in areas still zoned agricultural, such as parts of the UC Merced expansion plan, which could be subject to a vote of the people under the initiative.
Another concern, said Calabrese, has to do with the county's obligations to build low-income housing. He said the initiative allows for an exemption on building on ag land if the building is low-income housing. But that could prevent the county from building enough low-income housing to meet state requirements.
Additionally, Calabrese said that the measure, while meant to prevent sprawl, wouldn't impact cities' ability to annex county land.
Calabrese also said there's confusion over whether zoning changes in the future would need to go through the long environmental review process.
Supervisor Kelsey said that another issue is how the county will proceed with community growth plans in the future; if they would be subject to a vote before they would proceed. She wondered if voters across the county, who would be voting on future growth plans in, say, Winton, would have enough knowledge of the issues. Since the county would be prevented by law from spending public money on any political campaign, she said, developers would most likely be paying for voters to vote in favor of their own developments.
Backers of the initiative, who dispute much of the county's analysis, say the measure is simply meant to give voters a say when and if ag land should be converted. If the system was working, an initiative to stop sprawl wouldn't be necessary, explained Alan Schoff, the spokesman for Citizens for Quality Growth, the group behind the initiative.
"Generally ag land is being divided and zoned residential ahead of the demand. And obviously that has to have board approval. And it doesn't meet what the general public's expectations of the community are," said Schoff.
As for the county's legal analysis, Schoff said it was far from unbiased. "They pointed out potential issues that were all made up scenarios. In other words, not one of them are solid," he said.
Schoff said towns that already have growth plans in place wouldn't be impacted by the initiative. "It's not the intention of the initiative to deter the growth of the plans in place," said Schoff.
Kelsey's contention that the initiative process would put much of the power into the hands of developers, since they would be able to spend money on the issue, is false, said Schoff. "The developers are the ones influencing development here anyway," he said.
Schoff said the initiative intentionally didn't put boundaries on cities since the voting public would probably not favor such limits.
If passed, the initiative would put many of the county's most important land use issues before the voters.
Any time the county or a land- owner requested a zoning change from agricultural to residential or mixed use, it would have to go before the voters, with a few exceptions. Any land of 10 acres or more currently zoned as ag would be deemed ag under the initiative and subject to a vote if a change of zoning is requested.
Parcels smaller than 10 acres but farmed would be considered residential and not subject to the initiative.
An exemption to the rules would be allowed in regard to the county's legal need to build low income housing.
The initiative would allow 10 acres of ag land a year to be converted to residential use for low income housing if no other land could be found. Also, an exemption would apply to land that has already been OK'd for future development and for farmworker housing.
Reporter Jonah Owen Lamb can be reached at (209) 385-2484 or jlamb@mercedsun-star.com.
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