Morgan Hill – City officials penned an urgent letter to a regional land-use agency this week objecting to a proposed anti-sprawl policy that could make it difficult for South County cities to expand their borders.
According to the letter, signed by Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Tate, the Santa Clara County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) should take an “advisory approach” in its proposed agricultural mitigation policies, which seek to protect viable farm land from development as cities annex land or expand their urban-service boundaries.
The request ties directly to a legal question LAFCO officials are struggling with: Should its environmental land-use policies serve as strict rules for cities and counties or as guidelines for growth?
Last year, Sacramento County issued a legal opinion on the matter, stating similar LAFCO preservation policies in that county were legal because they were advisory and imposed no mandatory requirements.
Supervisor Don Gage, a LAFCO commissioner, said he asked Santa Clara County Counsel Ann Ravel to review the matter and offer an opinion at the LAFCO board meeting Feb. 14.
“We’re trying to work our way through this,” Gage said, adding he’d support whatever opinion Ravel gave. “What I’m asking for is the logic behind why we’re doing this.”
LAFCO is one of many agencies with power over city and county land and issues of annexation. A LAFCO oversees all 58 California counties. The agencies were established by California’s legislature in 1963 to reduce urban sprawl. In Santa Clara County, five appointed commissioners serve on LAFCO’s governing board.
Since April 2006, the governing board has endeavored to strengthen its state mandate to protect open space, focussing on generations-old farm land surrounding Gilroy, Morgan Hill and south San Jose. The proposed policies would require preserving one acre of prime farm land for every acre of prime agricultural land annexed for development. “Prime” agricultural land is defined as at least 10 acres big with suitable soil quality for crops.
Landowners, developers and city officials from Morgan Hill, San Jose and Gilroy fear LAFCO’s proposal could chill growth by imposing rigid standards.
Morgan Hill officials have said they’d be supportive of policies that allow for decisions to be made on a city-by-city basis, taking into the account local ordinances that govern land use and preservation.
“Morgan Hill has a long track record of effective growth management that has prevented premature conversion of open space and agricultural lands,” the city’s letter states. “We share LAFCO’s concern about open space and agricultural lands, and hope that we can work together on improving preservation policies and programs.”
Meanwhile, the city continues to work on developing agricultural and open space conversion policies to implement its greenbelt plan. City planners expect to have drafts of those policies ready for review this summer.
