Agricultural land conservation: California Farmland Conservancy Program Act.

Existing law establishes the California Farmland Conservancy Program Act, to be administered generally by the Department of Conservation, and provides that it is the intent of the act to, among other things, encourage voluntary, long-term private stewardship of agricultural lands by offering landowners financial incentives, encourage local land use planning for orderly and efficient urban growth and conservation of agricultural land, and encourage improvements to enhance long-term sustainable agricultural uses. The act establishes the California Farmland Conservancy Program Fund and requires, except as provided, moneys in the fund, upon appropriation, to be used for the purposes of the California Farmland Conservancy Program, which include, among other things, the purchase of agricultural conservation easements, fee title acquisition grants, and land improvement and planning grants. The act requires an agricultural conservation easement to be granted to any organization or entity authorized to acquire and hold conservation easements, as specified. The bill would revise and recast provisions of the California Farmland Conservancy Program Act to, among other things, specify legislative intent to remove barriers to socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, as defined, participating in the agricultural economy and stewarding working lands under conservation. The bill would expand the use of moneys in the fund for the program to include technical assistance grants, as described, to eligible assistance entities, as defined, and acquisition assistance grants to eligible assistance entities for the sole purpose of reducing barriers to land access for socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, as specified. The bill would require that not less than 25% of the program funds be provided to applicants that lease or sell to socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. The bill would also expand the conditions that an applicant must agree to for a grant for the acquisition of fee title to agricultural land to include, among other things, a farmer-purchaser preference, as defined, in the text of the agricultural conservation easement used to encumber the acquired property. The bill would provide that grants made for land improvements may include the financial and technical involvement of the University of California Cooperative Extension and would revise the selection criteria for an agricultural conservation easement or fee title acquisition grant to, among other things, include whether the proposal reduces barriers to land access for socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers through ownership or long-term leases. The bill would also make other conforming and nonsubstantive changes to these provisions.