City of Morgan Hill exploring mitigation for developers to pay for loss of farmland

Acre for acre replacement

Jay Blazek Crossley, Nov 22, 11.

The City of Morgan Hill, California may begin making developers mitigate the loss to farmland from any new developments, according to the Morgan Hill Times:

The long-awaited environmental study of the city’s southeast quadrant - a patchwork of small farms, orchards and sports fields - will have to wait even longer as the city determines what’s the best way to preserve east Morgan Hill’s trademark idyllic aura.

City staff and a consultant are currently evaluating options for “agricultural mitigation policies” that are intended to preserve some of the prime farmland on the east side of U.S. 101, according to Morgan Hill senior planner Rebecca Tolentino.

The policy would ideally provide acre-for-acre displacement of new non-agricultural construction projects, so that when a developer wants to build a shopping center on land that is currently used for farming, for example, they would have to pay a fee or otherwise offset the impact. The idea is to require the developer to ensure that farmland in other parts of the city - likely the southeast quadrant - can still be used for agriculture forever.

“It will establish a citywide program to promote the preservation of agriculture, so that when we have projects in Morgan Hill that (propose to) convert agricultural land uses to non-agricultural uses, (developers) would mitigate that,” Tolentino said.