SECTIONS 10270-10277 - California Statutes

PUBLIC RESOURCES CODE

SECTION 10270-10277

10270. Twenty-five or more years from the date of sale of the
agricultural conservation easement, the landowner may make a request
to the department that the easement be reviewed for possible
termination. Upon receipt of a request, the department shall
immediately notify the affected local government to initiate a local
government inquiry pursuant to Section 10271.

10271. (a) To terminate the agricultural conservation easement, the
local government in which the subject land is located shall
undertake an inquiry to determine the feasibility of profitable
farming on the subject land.
(1) The local government inquiry shall include onsite inspection
of the subject land, the holding of a public hearing in the county in
which the subject land is located, held after adequate public notice
of the hearing has been given and the preparation of a report
documenting the findings of the local government.
(2) The inquiry shall be concluded and a report submitted to the
department within 150 days of the department notifying the local
government of the request pursuant to Section 10270.
(b) The department shall make a decision as to the request within
195 days after notifying the local government of the request or
within 45 days after receiving the local government report
summarizing the results of its inquiry, whichever occurs later.

10272. An agricultural conservation easement may be terminated only
with the approval of the city council of the city in which the
subject land is located, or of the board of supervisors if the land
is located in an unincorporated area.

10273. (a) For the department to approve the termination of the
agricultural conservation easement, all of the following findings
shall be made:
(1) The termination is consistent with the purposes of this
division.
(2) The termination is in the public interest.
(3) The termination is not likely to result in the removal of
adjacent lands from commercial agricultural production.
(4) The termination is for an alternate use which is consistent
with the applicable provisions of the city or county general plan.
(5) The termination will not result in discontiguous patterns of
urban development.
(6) The conservation purposes, as defined in the agricultural
conservation easement, can no longer be achieved.
(7) There is no land that is available and suitable for the use to
which it is proposed that the restricted land be put to, or that
development of the restricted land would provide more contiguous
patterns of urban development than development of proximate
unrestricted land.
(b) As used in subdivision (a), the following terms have the
following meaning:
(1) "Proximate unrestricted land" means land that is not
restricted by an easement and which is sufficiently close to land
that is restricted so that it can serve as a practical alternative
for the use that is proposed for the restricted land.
(2) "Suitable for the use" means that the salient features of the
proposed use can be served by land not restricted by an easement. The
nonrestricted land may be a single parcel or may be a combination of
discontiguous parcels.
(c) The department shall request from the easement holder, and
shall consider the easement holder's assessment of, information
regarding the continuing value and viability of the subject property
for the conservation purposes for which the easement was originally
created. The department may consider the easement holder's investment
in, or experience with, the subject property in evaluating the
proposed termination.

10274. The uneconomic character of existing agricultural use shall
not by itself be sufficient reason for termination of the
agricultural conservation easement, unless the director determines
there is no other reasonable or comparable agricultural use for the
land, and the conservation purposes, as defined in the agricultural
conservation easement, can no longer be achieved. If the director
determines that the existing use is uneconomic, that there is no
other reasonable or comparable agricultural use of the land, and the
conservation purposes as defined in the agricultural conservation
easement can no longer be achieved, termination of the easement may
be approved by the secretary without making a finding pursuant to
paragraph (6) of subdivision (a) of Section 10273.

10275. (a) The landowner's request for termination shall be
accompanied by a proposal for a specified alternative use of the
land. The proposal for the alternative use shall list those
governmental agencies known by the landowner to have permit authority
related to the proposed alternative use.
(b) The landowner requesting a termination shall be required to
pay the total amount of the costs incurred by the local government
responsible for the administration of proceedings related to the
landowner's request for termination, if requested by the local
government.

10276. (a) If the termination of the agricultural conservation
easement is approved pursuant to this division or pursuant to a
judicial proceeding in a court of competent jurisdiction, the
landowner shall repurchase the easement by paying to the fund and, if
so provided in the easement, to any other contributing parties, the
difference, at that time, between the fair market value and the
restricted value. That difference shall be determined by an appraisal
approved by the state and conducted at the landowner's expense.
(b) If the landowner fails to complete the termination process by
repurchasing the agricultural conservation easement within one year
from the date of the department's approval of the termination of the
easement, the termination approval shall lapse and the landowner
shall wait at least one year before reapplying to terminate the
easement.
(c) Money received from the repurchase of agricultural
conservation easements shall be deposited in the fund and shall be
available, upon appropriation, for the purposes set forth in this
division, except as provided in subdivision (d).
(d) Where an easement was originally purchased with moneys from
sources other than the program, the easement may require that moneys
received from the repurchase of the easement be divided
proportionally between the fund and any other funding source,
including nonprofit organizations, in amounts that are proportional
to the original contribution made by each party that contributed to
that purchase. If provided in an easement, a nonprofit organization
that contributed indirect costs and services to the purchase of an
easement may recoup the actual amount of its contribution, plus an
amount not exceeding 3 percent of the total amount of the
contribution for administrative costs of ongoing easement monitoring
and enforcement. Those contributions shall be deducted from the total
proceeds prior to the proportional division defined herein.

10277. If the termination of the agricultural conservation easement
is not approved, the landowner may reapply for termination not
sooner than one year after the submittal of the denied application.