In the current renewable energy boom, developers of utility-scale solar and wind projects share a common need: large tracts of relatively flat, undeveloped land. California possesses an abundance of such land with high solar and wind resource potential, but more than 30 million acres are already under agricultural production. One of the principal hurdles facing development on much of this agricultural land is the California Land Conservation Act, commonly known as the Williamson Act.
Passed in 1965, the Williamson Act seeks to stave off the loss of agricultural land to urban development. The act is overseen by the Department of Conservation and implemented by local governments, typically counties. It authorizes local governments to establish agricultural preserves and offer contracts to landowners that provide property tax reductions in exchange for long-term restriction on the use of their land to agricultural or compatible open space uses. Until recently, these contracts had a 10-year initial term, and contracted land in Farmland Security Zones had 20-year initial terms. Under Assembly Bill 1265, passed in 2011, local governments may reduce the contract term from 10 to nine years and from 20 to 18 years.
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