It
’s official. The county’s Williamson Act mess is a disaster.
It’s official. The county’s Williamson Act mess is a disaster.
Employing a move typically reserved for calamities such as the 2003 Croy Road fire and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, Santa Clara County supervisors have agreed to make a temporary amendment to the county planning ordinance and give some relief to landowners caught in the Williamson controversy.
The unusual move – to extend to June 2006 Williamson Act building permits set to expire by the end of the year – will help who some call the real victims of the county’s failure over decades to properly enforce the act, people who received permission to build on their land but are now being told they cannot.
“This is a fairness issue for me because we’ve taken a lot of time with this,” Supervisor Don Gage said. “We’ve got people caught between a rock and a hard place.”
The Williamson Act provides a tax break to people who farm land that meets minimum size requirements. Without an agricultural use, owners may not build a home on the land.
But county planners didn’t always follow the rules until they were ordered to by state auditors in 2002.
In the past, planners approved subdivisions of Williamson land and issued permits, known as building site approvals, to many Williamson Act property owners who didn’t meet the law’s requirements.
Some of those landowners are now being told they can’t build unless they prove they farm the land. To get out of the Williamson Act they must wait 10 years or cancel their contracts and pay a fee equivalent to 12.5 percent of the land’s market value.
There are 25 Williamson landowners whose costly permits – the building site approval process costs a minimum of $5,000 in planning fees alone – will expire by the end of 2005. Meanwhile, county planners are still trying to craft Williamson Act policies governing whether those landowners can build houses.
County attorney Lizanne Reynolds said Tuesday that extending the permits by six months will give property owners an opportunity to review the new policies and figure out a course of action.
“I think the board [of supervisors] recognized that we don’t have clear rules about when you can build,” Reynolds said. “This will give people time to possibly demonstrate compliance or decide if they want to apply for cancellation.”
The six-month extension applies only to parcels covered by the Williamson Act.
Matt King covers Santa Clara County for The Times. He can be reached at 847-7240 or mk***@gi************.com.
The williamson act
A 1965 law that provides a tax break for keeping land in agricultural production. Under the law, landowners can build homes only if they farm the property. The county’s failure to enforce the law has created numerous problems.
•About 1,000 of the county’s 3,000 Williamson parcels aren’t being farmed or don’t meet minimum size requirements.
• Hundreds of county landowners are underpaying property taxes, in some cases by tens of thousands of dollars annually.
• The county could lose the right to enter Williamson contracts.
• Landowners have invested heavily in property they’re now being told isn’t eligible for development.
What’s next
• Beginning in January, the county will non-renew contracts that don’t meet requirements.
• Landowners who have potentially worthless building permits due to expire in December 2005 will be given until June 2006 to decide what to do with their land.
