COUNTYWIDE : Board May Attempt to Protect Farmland

County officials may create a trust to help preserve farmland that is being lost to development throughout the county.

On Tuesday the Board of Supervisors will consider setting up an advisory committee to study how an agricultural land trust can be established.

The interest in forming a trust came out of a 1989 report from the Beyond the Year 2000 Advisory Committee. The report to the supervisors recommended forming a trust to preserve both agricultural and open land.

The committee said it is important to preserve the agricultural industry that has dominated the county’s history, Planner Gene Kjellberg said.

Also, the committee said land should be preserved for aesthetic reasons and to maintain the lifestyle of residents.

“We are indeed losing agricultural land in the cities and in the unincorporated areas,” Kjellberg said.

A trust could preserve the land in several ways, he said, depending on how it is set up. One way is to provide farmers with economic incentives to maintain their land for agricultural use. It could also mean using donations, grants or possibly tax money to purchase land or the development rights to it.

In the report to the supervisors, Kjellberg recommends setting up an 11-member advisory committee, including elected officials, agricultural experts and county residents.

“Agricultural lands are the most immediately threatened with development because they are located in closest proximity to existing urban areas and available urban services,” he said in his report.