County says no to ranchettes

When fire or flood threatens residents in rural Colusa County, getting crews in to help is no easy task.

Though the roads aren’t well maintained, fire crews go in to try to help, but precious life-saving minutes are critically lost.

The situation is one Colusa County officials say they could forestall with better rules for subdividing large, rural properties.

“It’s a constant management issue,” said Colusa County Supervisor Kim Dolbow Vann. “We can’t provide urban services in a rural environment.”

But critics of the county’s new approach to change the minimum lot size standard on agriculture land - from the current 10-acre minimum to 40-acres - say the new land use regulation is not about managing the land, but kowtowing to a handful of farmers. 

“I don’t think the county thought this through,” said Daniel Claxton. “Where’s the economic analysis?This is a huge, sweeping change for the entire county.”

Claxton, who has been locked in battle with the county over the same right to subdivide his land as his neighbors, said the end result of the land use change could mean reducing the value of vast amounts of land in the local economy.

“We’ve seen what happens when you drop the value of people land,” Claxton said. “This is beyond what the existing economy has done.”

But county officials were clear – they will do what it takes to protect land zoned for agriculture in Colusa County – and that means protecting the remaining unsubdivided land in the county that’s vulnerable under the current rules to sprawling “ranchette” development.

Steve Hackney, Colusa County Planning Director said that residential subdivisions outside of and disconnected from existing communities - and lacking urban services - should be prohibited.

“I’ll admit I look toward regulations that embrace, protect and propagate agriculture,” Hackney said. 

That way of thinking has the endorsement of the Colusa County Farm Bureau and others, who don’t see the feasibility of trying to farm 10-acre lots of land, with one acre set aside for a residence.

“It’s not impossible,” said Arbuckle farmer Nathan Williams. “But there’s not a lot you can do with nine acres. Usually what you end up with is a piece of ground with a whole lot of squirrels.”

As an industry, agriculture generates approximately $500 million annually in commodity sales in Colusa County, with every dollars generating additional money elsewhere in the county.

According to  Hackney, the county has taken the lead in ensuring agriculture’s future, despite increasing pressures to convert prime agriculture land to urban development.

The Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday that land division of farms into smaller parcels may lead to non-agricultural land uses.

The board voted 4-0 to change the lot size minimum to 40-acres.

The new rules would apply only to future subdivisions.

Hackney said an ad-hoc committee of 14 met for nearly a year to review the plan, with only one member opposing the change.

The board said the county will consider the need for smaller lot sizes to provide for “ranchette” style living, located around the existing communities, when it embarks on its two-to-three year general plan update later this year.