Members of the Santa Barbara County Ag Futures Alliance—a 12-member organization of agricultural, labor, environmental, and community groups—recently released a proposal for a county ordinance providing land buffers for agricultural operations.
The group worked for more than a year developing the ag buffer proposal, intended to benefit agriculturalists who have operations adjacent to a proposed development project. According to the group, the buffer will help assure growers and ranchers that future conflicts will be avoided with urban neighbors by requiring developers to create protective areas in their projects from noise, dust, light, and odor generated from ordinary agricultural operations. The buffers will also provide further protection from trespass, litter, pets, and pests generated by urban uses.
For more information or to download the proposal, visit agfuturesalliance.org.
This article appears in Apr 8-15, 2010.
