ARCHIVE ITEM: Uniform Rules
The Uniform Rules are both state and county policies which determine what uses are permitted on agricultural land under the Williamson Act. The Williamson Act is a state program administered by the County which gives significant tax breaks to farmers and ranchers in exchange for keeping their land under contract for a rolling ten year period and following the Uniform Rules. Recently, the County has undertaken an update of these Rules to bring them into conformance with changes in state law. The County is also proposing changes to the Rules which would allow significant additional development levels per parcel in the form of industrial buildings, housing, guest ranches and other ag-related structures. Because the County is also proposing significant
increases in development potential for agricultural land from other County projects, the Cumulative Impacts section of the Environmental Impact Report was deemed insufficient after a coalition of community groups, including the Valley Alliance, gave testimony as to its inadequacy. County staff is now updating this section of the EIR and it should be available for review in approximately August 2007. Sometime after that, the entire update to the Uniform Rules will be voted on by the Board of Supervisors.