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Home Resource Center In the News Home Greenbelt Alliance in the News |
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Greenbelt Alliance In the News
June 3, 2003 County losing agriculture land
County losing agriculture land Nearly 5,000 rural acres Contra Costa have become lost to development, mostly in Brentwood and Antioch By Sandy Kleffman, CONTRA COSTA TIMESContra Costa ranks fourth among California counties in the amount of rural land lost to development, a new state study reveals. The county wasn't even in the top 10 during the state's last report, covering 1996-98. But a study released Monday by the Department of Conservation reveals that Contra Costa lost 4,798 acres of crop and grazing land from 1998 to 2000. That placed it next in line behind Riverside, San Diego and Sacramento counties in total acreage lost. "Clearly, this indicates quite a step-up in urbanization activity in Contra Costa County," said Erik Vink, assistant director of the Department of Conservation. "That's just shy of 1 percent of the total land area in the county. At the rate they're going, all (agricultural land) would be gone in less than 100 years." That won't happen under current restrictions. An urban limit line places much of the remaining Contra Costa agricultural land off-limits to developers. But the statistics, much like the county's longstanding growth battles, prompted widely different reactions. "It's a travesty -- Contra Costa has some of the best farmland in the state, and it's being paved over at an alarming rate," said Elinor Buchen, East Bay representative for the Greenbelt Alliance. "We value agriculture and we need to take steps to rein in the sprawl and protect that farmland," she said. Buchen called for voter-approved urban growth boundaries and for infill development that would relieve pressure to build on the county's fringes. Guy Bjerke, spokesman for the Home Builders Association of Northern California, countered that protections are in place to preserve open space. He argued that the statistics are no cause for concern. "The bigger issue is whether the Bay Area is going to provide enough housing for its workers to prevent their need to move to the Central Valley," he added. The valley is the state's agricultural heartland. California continues to have some of the most productive farmland in the world. But the Golden State lost more than 90,000 acres of rural land from 1998 to 2000. That's a 30 percent jump over the previous two years and the largest loss since 1990-92. Nearly 19 percent of the new urban areas came from prime farmland, the study found. Although most of the urban growth continued to be in Southern California, counties in the Central Valley and Bay Area now hold six of the top 10 slots. Most of Contra Costa's development took place in the fast-growing Brentwood and Antioch areas, home to housing developments and shopping centers. Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia argued that the statistics reveal the need to keep the urban limit line in place and not expand it, as some have suggested. "The way to stem the tide is to maintain the urban limit line and push the growth inward," he said. Some city officials in eastern Contra Costa have sought to have the restriction eased, arguing it impedes their local planning control. All told, Contra Costa had a net loss of 3,007 acres of crop land and 1,788 acres of grazing land, the study revealed. Neighboring Alameda County lost 171 acres of crop land and 1,128 acres of grazing land. Greenbelt Alliance spokesman Dan Fahey argued that building new subdivisions in eastern Contra Costa adds to the region's traffic woes as people jam Highway 4 to get to jobs in central county. "It's not like this is going to stop, because the towns have approved a lot of development that hasn't been built yet." State officials used a sophisticated computer system to prepare the maps, with the help of aerial photos combined with soil reports to distinguish prime farmland from other land. The agricultural losses were offset in part by large-scale vineyard developments in many coastal counties, the study notes. Five grape-growing counties -- Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Sonoma, Santa Barbara and Napa -- had net increases of irrigated land totaling 42,775 acres. In some counties, land used for orchards, strawberries, ornamental crops and baby carrots increased. Santa Clara County ranked fifth in urban growth, primarily because of development in the Gilroy area, the report notes. Vink predicted that the next report, covering 2000-02, will show a slowdown in the loss of agricultural land because of the state's sagging economy. "Growth is a hotly debated item, and this provides good, objective information about what is happening to the land base," he said. ### |
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