Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, 1998

Sonoma County, a dynamic county combining agriculture and industry, City and country, creating unique and varied challenges for its citizens join us as we present some of the information and services provided by the county of Sonoma to help us as we move into the 21st century. Welcome

to Sonoma County in the 90s with your host, Dana Jericho and Dina Lash. Hello, I'm Dana D'Errico and welcome to Sonoma County in the nineties. Today, our topic of discussion is going to be the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and open space district and I have with

me two very wonderful guests who are going to talk about the benefits that this agricultural preservation and open space district brings to our community. So let's join them. Now I have with me Maria Cipriani who is the assistant general manager and David Hansen who is the

general manager of the open space district. It's great to have you on the show today. Thank you. That's great. I really wanted to bring forward to the public exactly what the open space district does and the benefits to our community. Can you tell us a little

bit about that? I don't know who wants to attack that question. Well, perhaps I will lead off dana. It's nice to be here. The open space district was formed really as part of state law but was really the will of the people of Sonoma County in

1990 who voted it in through measures A N. C. The funding measure and the measure that formed the district to protect and preserve agricultural and natural lands in the county because in the eighties obviously this county was growing very rapidly and there was concern that we

would have the same urban sprawl that you get elsewhere in the san Francisco Bay and Los Angeles Basin areas. Well, we certainly don't want total urban sprawl. We like our farm community atmosphere Maria. Do you have anything to add to that? Yes, it's funded entire through

the quarter percent sales tax that was approved by the voters in 1990 the district revenues bringing about 11 year for purchase of interests in land to preserve agriculture and open space in the county. So how long is this initiative or measure going to be an effect?

Is there a time limit on that? Well, the district will remain in perpetuity. However, the funding measure will sunset in about 16 years. The measure of the funding quarter percent sales tax was for a 20 year period. So in the short term we will be looking

to perhaps, you know, to attempt to extend that sales tax so that we can continue preserving more land. I I thought that there was a cap or a time limit on it, although you might want to explain to the viewers uh perpetuity that you mean that

it goes on forever, that there's never you never give up that right once you've sold it. That's correct. Once a landowner puts a conservation easement on their property that does remain on the land forever. So even if the land is passed down to their heirs or

is subsequently sold, then those restrictions that are put in place on the land are still applicable forever. That's often difficult for landowners because we can only deal with willing sellers and to talk about forever is a difficult subject. But I think once they understand and they

see the benefits, we of course are paying them money to prevent their subdivision and development of the properties. But once they understand the benefits of it, the tax benefits the values that they're getting. It's a little easier to understand perpetuity in that regard. Can you talk

about some of those benefits? Yes, the obviously there's a general public benefit that we're trying to achieve. Uh county General plan talks about scenic corridors, talks about uh community separators, which is the principal focus of our agency, uh the critical habitat areas, riparian corridors, the uh

precious farmlands that we all love in Sonoma County. Those are all areas that we will see protected through the program. We've happily protected 25,000 acres to date. But I think for a landowner, of course he's getting paid for these easements. We are paying fair market value

for them. There is also the opportunity to lower taxes to some degree or get tax benefits through donations if they can do a partial donation below market sales. So you would get a double benefit. You would get property tax benefit and also income tax benefits and

for passing on land to your heirs for looking at capital gains ways of hedging against capital gains and so forth. So there are many benefits in that regard. I will say that the property taxes really depend if you have other restrictions on the land, then you

may not get that. But we outline that all to the landowners when we work. What type of restrictions are you speaking of? Well, the main restriction is that they cannot subdivide beyond a certain point that we agree to or they can't build residential housing on the

site unless they want maybe one or two um for their Children and grandchildren to be retained on the property. But that's that's the main restriction. Um In terms of other things, there may be uh an ability to allow um restoration of the land to make sure

that they're not cutting trees or there's a major erosion problem. All of them are written into the, into the documents that form the conservation easement. And just to add to that data, the conservation easements are structured so that we can satisfy the goals of the district,

what the district is trying to protect as well as what the landowner wants to see occur on the land. In other words, that may be continued agricultural production may be enhanced through through the conservation easement and there may be situations where there's an an important stream

or creek on the property where there's a riparian vegetation that we attempt to protect through the the Eastman. And so, working mutually with the landowners to ensure that their needs as well as the goals of the district are being satisfied through structuring that that transaction. So

when you speak of the riparian, uh right away or the repairing and that's our waterways, our creeks or rivers. That's correct. That's correct. And there may be um, you know, significant streams on, on certain properties that um, may have critical stands of redwoods, for instance, another

important riparian vegetation that will be protected through, um, you know, restricting certain uses in those areas, perhaps on, on the land. What about access? The public does not have access to these um, open space. Generally we do not negotiate for public access. Unlike other open space

districts that by lands in fee or outright for public use. Uh that is not our principal goal. Our principal goal is the conservation easement business where we are um putting an easement restriction on the land, not necessarily negotiating for public access. In some instances, owners will

volunteer trail rights of way. And in other instances we have a health park agencies in the city's acquire lands and I know Maria could talk about the matching grant program that we have, but generally we're not in the park and recreation business. We're in the open

space protection. That was always unclear in my mind. And I wanted to point out that just my understanding was just because you have done this with your property, put it into the open space district. It does not mean that you've given away public access. I've always

been confused about. That's correct. As David mentioned though, we have worked on several cooperative projects with different entities such as State parks, the county regional Parks Department and the state Wildlife Conservation Board where they have their have been opportunities for public access. One of the most

notable being the McCormick transaction, where we worked with state parks. We initially district put a conservation easement over the entirety of the property, two distinctive areas of what we call a forever wild, which is the more natural and keeping the land in its, you know, existing

condition and then in agricultural easement over a portion where allowed for continued cultural use. A great majority of that property was then conveyed. There was a subsequent transaction where the district provided a matching grant to the state to convey that underlying fee so they could manage

it as an adjunct to Sugarloaf State Park and provide for ultimately provide for um loki recreational opportunities on about 1000 acres. Another cooperative project that we worked on with regional parks was um the Cloverdale River Park along the Russian River, just north of the city of

Cloverdale, where the district acquired two properties and assisted regional parks to have the underlying fee so that they can manage and operate ultimately, as a regional park that could provide access to the Russian River as well as allow for restoration to to preserve and restore some

of the riparian habitat and native vegetation in that area. And in those situations, the district will still hold a conservation easement over the property while the underlying fee is managed by another entity. Um, so in these projects, it sounds like those are going to be open

to the public. That's correct benefits for everyone. There actually have been have been several unity ball field here. Actually, about a third of the projects that we've done have had some either current or potential future opportunity for public recreational use, which many people think we don't

offer that, but they're generally trail rights. But in the Unity site, it's a site just to the north of santa rosa on Old Redwood Highway, a 21 acre site that we have acquired in fi, we actually own the property now. We manage it. Uh, The cooperative

attempt will be to eventually turn it over to regional parks. There is an organization called the santa rosa Youth Ball Field Trust, which is a private nonprofit, um, which is really going to be operating and managing and developing ball fields on the site. Soccer fields and

baseball and softball diamonds, which will be operated by the trust even though the land will be held by the parks department and then the district will have an overriding easement to ensure that it stays that way forever. Also, the local school of the adjacent schools, Cardinal

Newman Anderson High Schools have an interest in contributing in terms of maintenance and some limited use in exchange for that. But they will be public ball fields and we think a very good cooperative project I think because it's also surrounded by other open space lands and

it sits in an area that will generally be kept as a community separator forever. What's the oak tree ordinance? Uh, the oak tree ordinance was actually uh initiated um through the county and the regulatory process. Um, and the district's involvement in the oak tree ordinance was

to consider the board of directors of the district asked the district to consider protection valley oaks when working with landowners where those that habitat present or, or there are significant oaks on the property. So it's something that when, when we are looking to protect lands which

may have the valley oak habitat, we work with the landowner to ascertain how we might be able to accommodate restoration or preservation of oaks on the property. So the valley, that's the oak tree with the big leaves, the very large, yes, it's a deciduous oak. It's

the one with the big weeping branches that you see there primarily Windsor I notice in the fields in the valley area hundreds of years old, some of them beautiful heritage trees essentially, if you can stay tuned or hang on, we'll be right back. So stay tuned.

We'll be right back. Um, and his grades on from support those most in need call 1 808 990089. See how you can help the Sonoma County in the nineties. And we're here today with David Hanson, general manager and Maria Cipriani, assistant general manager of

the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and open space District. So let's rejoin them. Um, we were just talking about some of the great benefits that the open space district offers to our community. And I wanted to ask you, there's some interesting things you have listed here. The

Gray Creek. What is the Gray Creek sounds interesting. Great Creek. Dana is an area out by Austin Creek State Recreation Area north of Greenville. The Armstrong Redwoods, Austin Creek State Park area, about 100 acres of land out there was under a timber harvest plan held by

two owners. Um, it came as an urgency project to us because that plan was going to be implemented where there was the potential for cutting down uh, first growth redwood, 100,000 year old redwood trees. The district because we can't move that fast. Generally, we had asked

that we get some assistance and eventually the land was intended to end up in state parks hands. But save the Redwoods League private nonprofit that's their sole business is protecting Redwood stepped in. Uh, cooperatively working with us and uh, got some assurances from the owners that

they could, that we could acquire the property. Um And those two projects have been approved recently by the board of supervisors sitting as our board of directors working with save the redwoods, we will pay the value for conservation easements. Save the redwoods was willing to chip

in the remaining value and then they will be transferred from the owners over to state parks as perpetual protected areas, not only for the redwoods, but for the the the Gray Creek watershed, the habitat, the salmon protection needed in that area, the spawning grounds for the

steelhead and so forth. I didn't realize we still had some redwood forests with 1000 year old redwood trees. There are several areas in the county like that. Yes. And there are other projects that we've been asked to contribute on that. We haven't really completed yet, but

this was a first for us. So that sounds like a fantastic acquisition and state parks will be handling it. That's correct. They will be managing it and it will become open to the public. When do you anticipate that to happen? I think state parks has indicated

within a year or so they could be, it's a fairly remote area. They're ready to let the public on. That's great. When you have the discussions and are negotiating, you said that there's several other projects coming up in the very near future. Uh Is this open

to the public? How can the public be informed or if they want to become involved? Is there an avenue to um accomplish that? Yes. The district has a 17 member advisory citizens advisory committee that is appointed by the board of supervisors. And they meet the third

thursday of every month at the district's office. Those meetings are open to the public um as well as the ECU position subcommittee meetings of that committee also meets about once a month, the first week of the month. And you can contact the district office at 5

to 4736. So for information, if you would like to receive the agendas or any information on the district's preservation activities. Also the open space authority which is our funding entity of the district also um Those meetings are also open to the public. Could we repeat that

phone number again in case our viewers did not get it. Yes, it's like 247360760. Okay, so if you want to participate in the meetings or become involved, that would be one way. Also the 17 people that sit on that for the open space, the advisory committee,

the advisory committee, how does one become involved with the advisory committee. Again, they are appointed by the board dana. Board of supervisors would have to appoint them when there was an opening. That's correct. There are three representatives from the Mayors and council members Association which are

recommended by that association and then formally they are appointed by the board. There are two representatives from each of the supervisorial districts as well as representatives from the real estate, the agricultural, the business and environmental. So the probably for our viewers through your board of supervisors,

whatever district you're in. That's correct. Or just coming to the meetings and becoming involved in what the district is doing. I say, see David has something anxiously held up here. He wants us to see. So why don't we ask him about open property? Well, I wanted

to at least point out and know many citizens in this county voted for this district because of the community separators and I'm very happy to say that we have protected a number of properties in the north Rohnert Park santa rosa separator. Uh, this is a project

that is coming to the board rapidly. The open property. It's a 75 acre piece north of Rohnert Park adjacent to Petaluma Hill Road and it it's a crucial piece in the separator. Uh, we recently acquired the young and armories property and previously the brown property as

well. But I think this photo, some of these photos really dramatically show those areas in terms of separators. We will actually own these and fee for a short while hopefully do some restoration, some oak tree planting. That Maria talked about creek renovation if we need to

and then sell it what creek runs through there. There's some channels. I'm not sure exactly the name of the creek, but they've been channel ized some time ago by the water agency and they've done some tree planting. But there is an opportunity to enhance the harsh

line between the developed areas and the open space. And it's very clear down on the bottom photos. I don't know how clear that's coming out for our viewers, but you can just see Rohnert Park and the area of the housing area and then of course that

that is a crucial piece of property to obtain. We really didn't go into explaining community separator and I know that's written into our general plan. Maybe Maria can talk about that a little bit and talk about how many community separators we do have and what their

function is. Okay, as as you pointed out, dana. Of course, the community separator is a designation in the county's open space element of the general plan and essentially they were designated to maintain the open space between the communities and the cities, particularly along the main travel

corridors such as highway one oh one, Highway 12 between Sonoma and santa rosa for instance. Rohnert Park and santa rosa, Windsor and Healdsburg is another example of a community set operator. So they're about nine designated in the county's general plan. The district's acquisition plan that was

adopted in 1992 does indicate that those are high priority areas of interest to protect through either conservation easements or as David has pointed out in in the case of Ocon through if he purchased. And um, we have had several transactions that have occurred in, in several

of those separators throughout the county as well as we are negotiating on on several more. We have um, in particular, I think although it's not designated in the county's general plan as a community separator, one of our most recent significant transactions that kind of defines that

transition between the urban edge and the rural area was the Kramer acquisition, which is 173 acres just adjacent to the western edge of santa rosa near the Laguna area. And that was a joint cooperative project between the district and the state of California, the Wildlife conservation

board to protect that not just for its open space values but also for its habitat resource values. It is um, habitat for rare and endangered species, plant species, as well as animal species and so that will be protected in perpetuity. That was a fee purchase and

ultimately, uh, there will be public access, uh, connecting hopefully to santa rosa creek on the north. Mm hmm. What about endangered species? You've mentioned that several times through the show today. And let's talk a little bit about that. How are you helping our natural wildlife? Well,

a lot of the areas that are home to rare and endangered species may be designated as critical habitat in the county's general plan. And that then is folded into the expenditure plan of the district adheres to. And so there may be opportunities when working with individual

landowners to preserve through um maybe designated natural areas on the property where um it, you know, it is known that that's such a species occurs and there's, you know, a mutual agreement that that would be protected and so that could be written into the easy. Uh

The other way is again, as David had pointed out some of our fee acquisitions in the community separators such as the heart tunisian South, which was an acquisition several years ago when it's the heart tuning in, we referred to it as the south because we also

have um this property of the same name transaction in the north. Um but that was a fee transaction about 20 acres. That does have some vernal pools on it. And so we um present at the present time that is still held in fee by the district.

But that again is um transaction we we have protected that resource. So so the way that your plan is written where you can then put some funding into these acquisitions that you made to enhance the habitat area, essentially, it's to protect them first. And then enhancement

can occur with cartoony and I think what we intend to do is to eventually turn it over to fish and game, who logically would be the holders and who have shown an interest in protecting management. Located just west of north northwest of briefly show on the

map here. If you have an opportunity, it's one of the projects to the north of Rohnert Park, visible from the freeway. It's one of several that we've acquired in that area. So it's located to the north in that location. I see northwest northwest of Roda Park.

Okay, so it's like south of Sebastopol, kind of southeast. Very quite highway Freeway and highway 1 16 in between those two. Really north of that. But so what wildlife is there are habitat or flowers, Flowers, flowers and some animal species to uh we're hoping also to

involve the C. C. C. Or some disadvantaged youth or some programs that will allow some tree planting, the oak tree planting before we turn it over to fish and game so that we have some opportunity to restore the land in that fashion. Currently we are fencing

and securing the property. We probably continue with some limited grazing to to keep the grass is down for fire protection and so forth. I see here that we're getting close to the end of the show here. I see that you have an art show listed here.

You have newsletter. You have and that this is supposed to be a keystone year for us or for you. So could you briefly tell us all about that? I'll start it off. Certainly the art show is a proposal to work with Sonoma State University to look

at certain lands at the district secured and, and to have some very famous artists in the county. Uh, Jack stubborn being one of them who's helping me organize uh, some paintings and, and having them do some works out on the land in the coming few months.

Have the show in the fall at Sonoma State to publicize both their works and almost eight and what they're doing for art and the district, what they're doing with their program. So a good example of collaboration. That's one thing that we do plan on celebrating what

we've done to date and having some kind of recognition event for those that have been involved in helping to secure land owners, landowners included. And we're also putting out a newsletter as you mentioned. And we have some exciting projects on the board as well. So it,

it is a keystone year. We are hoping to revise our acquisition plan. We're working on a recreation plan and Maria can say a little bit about those and continuing our cooperative projects, including the matching grant program with the city's. That's great. Well, I want to congratulate

both of you for a wonderful job that you're doing and I think you're really making a difference in our community and for future generations. So thank you and thank you for being on the show. Thank you for joining us. I hope to see you again soon.

And this is Dana d'Errico from Sonoma County in the nineties