Sacramento County is drafting an update to its General Plan. The draft Agricultural Element adds two new sections: Agritourism and Agricultural Land Assessments.
The current Zoning Code restricts or prohibits many agritourism activities unless a conditional use permit is granted, including for on-site sales. The General Plan update strives to embrace and promote agritourism as a tool to assist the long-term economic sustainability, diversity, and viability for some of the agricultural industry. Draft policies would support flexibility in agricultural practices and market opportunities as well as county staff resources to provide coordination, education, and technical support to assess and evaluate new and expanded tourism-based economic opportunities for farmers.
The objective of Agricultural Land Assessments is to increase equity of assessments on agricultural land for services that primarily benefit urban residents.
Several assessment districts include both urban and rural residents; however, the services provided by these districts often benefit urban residents more than farmers or ranchers (e.g., fire protection, street lighting, and parks and recreation). The taxes and assessments to pay for these services are often applied as a fixed per-parcel fee and are therefore inequitable as the proportion of costs paid by farmers often exceeds the proportion of benefits received by farmers. This section of the draft document aims to increase the equity of property assessments.
For more information contact Kacey Lizon at (916) 340-6265 or klizon@sacog.org.