During the Nov. 19 Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors meeting, supervisors sparred over whether to accept a routine administrative application for non-renewal of a volunteer agricultural preserve contract agreement. What made it such a special application was the fact that it was for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians’ Camp 4 property in Santa Ynez.
The Chumash put in an application with the county to prevent the Williamson Act contract on the property from automatically renewing on the last day of 2022. The item was on the administrative agenda for Nov. 19’s meeting. Supervisors voted 3-1-1 to accept the application, with 3rd District Supervisor Doreen Farr dissenting and 2nd District Supervisor Janet Wolf abstaining.
Farr took the opportunity to make it clear that she’s against efforts by the Chumash to move the Camp 4 property closer to development, especially because the nearly 1,400-acre parcel has the gigantic question of fee-to-trust looming over its title, and the tribe’s future development plans for the property are well known.
“I won’t be supporting it. I realize that the Williamson Act is a voluntary program and that the tribe has the ability to request non-renewal,” Farr said during the meeting. “On the other hand, our recommended action is to find that this is administrative and that it won’t result in any physical changes to the environment, and we know that that’s not true. They do have a [fee-to-trust] application and we know what’s proposed; the county has commented on the environmental assessment.”
The “fee-to-trust” process would deed the 1,400-acre Camp 4 property over to the government on the tribe’s behalf, putting it under sovereign control of the Chumash.
The Camp 4 property has been under Williamson Act contract with the county since 1972. The contract essentially establishes the area as an agricultural preserve, meaning land use on the parcel is restricted to agricultural or related open space usage. In exchange, property taxes for Camp 4 are assessed at lower-than-normal rates.
It’s a voluntary contract that either party can opt out of and, generally, contracts automatically renew themselves every 10 years. Because non-renewal of the contract itself doesn’t generate a development project on the property, county planning staff determined that it doesn’t result in a physical or environmental change to the property.
Farr took issue with planning staffers’ determination.
Fourth District Supervisor Peter Adam cautioned fellow board members before the vote took place, saying they should treat the non-renewal application as the board would if it were from any other private landowner in the county.
“I don’t think we should be sending [the Chumash] a message that we’re not going to deal with anything that they bring through the front door in a reasonable fashion,” Adam said during the meeting. “I think we should be sending the message that, you know, everything that they bring through the front door will be dealt with in a reasonable fashion.”
County planner Kim Probert told the Sun that the county has never denied a Williamson Act contract non-renewal request. Probert said when landowners put in an application for non-renewal, they are basically informing the county of their decision.
“We can’t not accept it,” Probert said. “The people come in voluntarily and they can leave voluntarily.”
The contract with the Chumash will ramp down over the next nine years, and property taxes on the Camp 4 property will ratchet up incrementally until they’re at a normal level when the contract terminates at the end of 2022.
This article appears in Nov 27 – Dec 4, 2013.