An opportunity to expand beyond cattle ranching could help Mary Heyden and her family keep the historic Ted Chamberlin Ranch in Los Olivos, she said.
Heyden’s grandfather purchased the 8,000-acre ranch in 1929, and it has remained intact with her family for the last three generations, but it’s been difficult, she said at the Nov. 29 Santa Barbara County Planning Commission meeting.
“Eight thousand acres in Santa Barbara County is a very valuable asset, but it doesn’t bring much income or any income. Our concern is how are we going to hand it down to the next generation?” Heyden said during the commission’s county ag enterprise ordinance discussion. “To be able to do this, we are going to have to develop supplemental income.”
The county’s ag enterprise ordinance is an opportunity for landowners to use their properties for more than ag activities, expanding allowable uses to include things like farm stands, farm stays, camping, trails, special events, educational experiences, and food services. Cattle ranchers, vintners, and growers shared their support for the ordinance at the November meeting and suggested changes that could make it more economically feasible and protect ag land. The Planning Commission will pick the discussion back up on Dec. 13.
“It’s a thing of beauty to see these different groups come up with similar recommendations and support one another’s recommendations,” 3rd District Commissioner John Parke told the Sun. “We want this to be appealing, compatible, and something that will truly benefit agriculture and something they can work with.”
One of the suggestions Heyden highlighted during public comment was adding a camping option that was exempt from permitting. The current draft of the ordinance requires landowners to get a conditional use permit—the most expensive permit, which takes months to process. Heyden said going through the conditional use permitting process and high costs could hold landowners back from moving forward with adding camping opportunities to their day-to-day operations.
“I’m proposing we do something to the added exempt category: dry camping or low impact camping almost like Hipcamp. We know Hipcamps happen here, people come on, they’re self-contained, and they go,” Heyden said.
She added that farm-stay opportunities also need an exempt category. Currently, the ordinance would require people to stay in the “principal dwelling” and that the resident needs to be at the home as well.
“I’m going to be honest, I don’t want people staying in my house, but I do have a nice guest house that could be used for a farm stay,” Heyden said. “I’m asking they switch from a principal dwelling and they can be in existing dwellings.”
While ranchers were asking for more leniency to having people on their properties, Santa Barbara County Grower-Shipper Association President Claire Wineman shared her concerns for allowing people on ag properties that grow row crops.
“I want to draw attention to the importance of having sufficient buffers, protection of prime soils, parcel size, campgrounds, and farm stays and the mitigation of conflicts between ag operations and a new public presence,” Wineman said.
Adding a buffer zone between ag operations and overnight activities like camping or farm stays would help protect produce from any negative impact and keep farmers in business. Currently, adequate buffers are at 400 feet minimum, but Wineman estimated that they could expand to miles in the future in order to protect produce.
“When you are coming to camp, to stay, you are looking for that picturesque, beautiful environment, and we have a lot of that, but also a lot of ag is an industrial place of work. That’s where these comments are coming from,” Wineman said. “There are direct impacts to the site and neighboring uses that are high intensity that are essential to the food, income, and employment of our community.”
This article appears in Dec 7-17, 2023.
