Receive a presentation and accept public comment on the draft Yolo County Agricultural Conservation Priority Plan. No action is required by the Planning Commission at this time. (Planner: Charlie Tschudin)

FILE # Yolo County Agricultural Conservation Priority Plan
APPLICANT: NA	OWNER: NA
LOCATION: Agricultural Areas GENERAL PLAN: AG ZONING: A-N/A-X SUPERVISORIAL DISTRICT: All PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE: Not required.	SOILS: Multiple FMMP: Multiple WILLIAMSON ACT: Multiple FLOOD ZONE: NA FIRE SEVERITY ZONE: NA
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION: The project is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act.

That the Planning Commission: 

1. Receive presentation containing an overview of the draft Yolo County Agricultural Conservation Priority Plan;
2. Accept public comment;
3. Provide feedback to County staff on plan. 

Since its inception in 1850 as one of California's original 27 counties, Yolo County has remained steadfast in its commitment to agriculture. The first Yolo County General Plan was adopted in 1958 and the primary goals were to preserve soil resources and minimize urbanization. Since the original Yolo County General Plan was approved, it's been comprehensively updated three times, the last occurring in 2009. Each comprehensive update to the General Plan builds on the same core principles of agricultural preservation and agriculture as the economic and social engine of the County. 

The Yolo County 2020-2025 Strategic Plan is the County's guiding document for the five-year period and is used to align long-term goals with short-term actions, set policies, and prioritize funding resources. The Strategic Plan contains five primary goals, each with specific metrics to measure progress. One of the goals of the 2020-2025 Strategic Plan is Flourishing Agriculture, which is intended to facilitate a vibrant and resilient agricultural industry that preserves sufficient farmland to maintain a local, state and national food supply in perpetuity. The Flourishing Agriculture goal addresses the topic of agricultural preservation, which is measured by the number of acres permanently protected. 

In fall 2020, County staff identified the California Department of Conservation's Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation (SALC) grant program as a funding source to develop a strategy in support of the 2020-2025 Strategic Plan's goal of increasing the acreage of permanently protected agricultural land, which supports many of the General Plan's long-range goals and policies related to agricultural preservation. Staff submitted a grant application to the Department of Conservation to develop a planning document that would build on the County's (and its stakeholders) efforts to preserve agriculture by evaluating high-value agricultural areas, identifying available conservation strategies, and providing recommendations as to how and where future agricultural preservation could or should occur.

The project received grant funding in early 2021 and since that time, staff and consultants have been preparing the draft Yolo County Agricultural Conservation Plan, included as Attachment 1. The project team held multiple conversations with the Yolo Land Trust, Yolo County Farm Bureau, Yolo Habitat Conservancy, and the Yolo County Agricultural Commissioner during the development of the plan. The intent of the plan is to help the County and its stakeholders accomplish the following objectives to support growth where appropriate and preserve high-value agricultural land by:
- Identifying intrinsic values of farmland, in addition to food production, that are of high value;
- Identifying high-priority agricultural areas for consideration of future conservation; and
- Recommending conservation methods either by geography or crop or by soil type. 

Yolo County Farm Bureau,
Sacramento Area Council of Governments,
Valley Vision,
Yolo Land Trust,
Yolo Habitat Conservancy,
Yolo County Department of Agriculture,
Yolo County Department of Community Services,
Yolo County Administrator's Office

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