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Keeping Farms in Business is Tricky
Marin Independent Journal
Wednesday, January 10, 2007

MARIN is working hard to find ways to preserve the vitality of the agricultural property.

Making that task more difficult is the fact those farms and ranches often are attractive to wealthy folks who love the rural flavor but may not be worried about generating the same farm-related income.

The question is how to keep those rich folks from buying those ranches and farms and essentially taking them out of large-scale production.

The county Planning Department has a simple solution that unfortunately doesn't address the complex economic and social issues that have been changing the face of Marin's agriculture industry for the past few decades.

County planners want to limit the size of homes on agricultural property to 2,500 square feet or less.

The theory is that wealthy buyers want to build huge homes and would be less likely to buy if they couldn't.

Planners used a study by consultant David Strong to make their case to members of the county Planning Commission, who rightfully were more than a little skeptical.

The study's 2003 analysis found that large agricultural properties with large homes on average produce less farm-related income than large parcels with smaller homes.

Strong said: "If someone wants to build a large house, it's not certain that their interest in agriculture is sincere."

His conclusion: Limiting the size of homes means the land will stay more productive in terms of farm-related revenue.

That conclusion is simplistic. It also seems unfair.

Among other things, such a proposal simply would reduce the value of the property. And 2,500 square feet is not a huge home by today's standards.

Planning commissioners correctly pointed out that many farmers are land rich but cash poor. They also asked whether any agriculture land could be considered economically viable because of rising land values. Don Dickenson also noted that non-agricultural development actually tends to subsidize agricultural use, which is a positive thing.

Limiting the size of homes does nothing to address the fact that nearly a third of Marin ranches and farms do not have family members interested in continuing the business, or the growing costs of operating a ranch or farm.

The Marin Agricultural Land Trust and the county have done a remarkable job of encouraging and preserving Marin's agriculture industry. There are still 169,000 acres of agricultural land in Marin, much of it protected through easements brokered by MALT. Marin's flourishing organic agriculture movement is the envy of other counties.

The county needs to do everything it can to keep helping an industry that is such a part of Marin's past and present.

But policies and easements can only do so much. Ultimately it comes down to someone wanting to be a rancher or farmer.

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