In 1995, the City Council approved the Right to Farm and Farmland Preservation Ordinance.  The main goals of the ordinance are to:  (1) preserve and encourage agricultural land use and operations within the Davis Planning Area, (2) reduce the occurrence of conflicts between agricultural and non-agricultural land uses, and (3) reduce the loss of agricultural resources by limiting the circumstances under which agricultural operations may be deemed a nuisance. It is codified in the City's Municipal Code as Chapter 40A.

To achieve the ordinance's objectives, the City Council included two key requirements that developers must comply with if a proposed project is adjacent to agricultural land and converts agricultural land to non-agricultural land.  These requirements, which were updated and strengthened by the City Council in 2007, are the agricultural land mitigation requirement and the agricultural buffer requirement, two key implementing tools in the City’s Open Space Program. 

Under the City’s agricultural land mitigation requirement, developers must permanently protect at least two acres of agricultural land somewhere within the Davis Planning Area to “mitigate” for every acre of agricultural land they convert to urban uses (i.e., the 2:1 requirement).  Permanently protecting the land means either buying it outright or buying a conservation easement on the land.  Developers must first preserve the land directly adjacent to their project (the “Adjacent Mitigation Land”).  If this adjacent land is not enough to satisfy the 2:1 agricultural land mitigation requirement, then the developer must look elsewhere within the Davis Planning Area (the “Remainder Mitigation Land”).  Both of these categories are briefly discussed below:

• Adjacent Mitigation Land.  The developer must first protect the land along the entire non-urbanized perimeter of the project.  For example, if a proposed housing development abuts farmland, the housing developer must protect that farmland.  If the developer cannot protect this land for some reason, then the developer must provide the Adjacent Mitigation Land on the development site itself.  The Adjacent Mitigation Land must be of a size that is economically viable as farmland (i.e., it must be a minimum 1/4 mile in width).  Developers do not have to mitigate for the 100-foot portion of the required on-site agricultural buffer.

•  Remainder Mitigation Land.  If the Adjacent Mitigation Land is not enough to satisfy the 2:1 agricultural land mitigation requirement, then the developer must look to protect land elsewhere within the Davis Planning Area (See Attachment 2).  Incentives, or location-based “credits,” are provided to the developer to protect land in areas targeted for permanent protection by the City, such as land within a ¼ mile of the city limits and land within “priority acquisition areas” as determined by the City Council.  These priority acquisition areas currently include land adjacent to the city limits, land separating the City from neighboring cities, and land providing particular agricultural, biological/natural and/or scenic benefits.

These incentives, or location-based “credits,” are summarized in the table below:

As shown in the table above, if the developer protects one acre either adjacent to the required Adjacent Mitigation Land or within priority acquisition areas, then the developer would be able to “count” one acre toward the 2:1 agricultural land mitigation requirement.  If the developer protects one acre adjacent to the city limits or within ¼ of the city limits, then the developer would be able to “count” two acres toward the 2:1 agricultural land mitigation requirement.

If the developer protects one acre anywhere else within the Davis Planning Area, then the developer would be able to “count” only 1/5 of that acre toward the 2:1 agricultural land mitigation requirement.  So, five acres protected anywhere else within the Davis Planning Area equal only one acre toward the 2:1 agricultural land mitigation requirement.

An example of how the City’s agricultural land mitigation requirement might work in the real world is shown in the table below:

In this example, a developer plans to develop 250 acres of agricultural land into urban uses.  The City’s agricultural land mitigation requirement requires the developer to permanently protect 500 acres of agricultural land (2:1, or twice the acres being developed).  In this example, the developer is able to protect 50 acres adjacent to his project as his Adjacent Mitigation Land requirement.  So, his Remainder Mitigation Land requirement is 450 acres.  In this example, he gets those 450 acres by permanently protecting:  (1) 125 acres within ¼ mile of the city limits (250 credited acres), and (2) 1,000 acres far from the city limits but within the Davis Planning Area (200 credited acres).  Those 1,000 acres only “count” as 200 acres toward the City’s agricultural land mitigation requirement because the 1,000 acres protected far from the city limits count less than the acres the developer protected close to the city limits.

As shown in this example, due to the location-based factors or “credits,” the actual acreage protected can be significantly more than twice the acres being developed. 

Finally, it is important to note that the developer may satisfy up to 50% of the agricultural land mitigation requirement by paying an in-lieu fee based on the appraised value of agricultural land near the city limits. 

In general, Remainder Mitigation Land must (1) be within the Davis Planning Area; (2) have comparable soil quality/capability/type; (3) have comparable water quality/supply; and (4) be developable (i.e., it is not subject to any easements, contamination, or physical conditions that would make it impossible to develop).