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SACRAMENTO -- The
amount of agricultural land in Santa
Barbara County decreased from its 2000
peak, while urbanized acreage increased
slightly, according to a new map
released by the California Department of
Conservation.
After increasing by
more than 14,000 acres in the late
1990’s, the amount of irrigated land in
the county dropped by nearly 2,000 acres
between 2000 and 2002. The net gain of
47 acres of urbanized land was lower
than might be expected due to boundary
improvements to the existing urban area
using high-resolution imagery.
The Farmland Mapping
and Monitoring Program (FMMP), part of
DOC's Division of Land Resource
Protection, documents land-use
conversion on 45.8 million acres of
California’s private and public land
every two years. The maps and statistics
are designed to help local governments
evaluate land-use planning decisions.
The 2002 analysis is nearly complete
statewide, while 2004 mapping is getting
underway.
“This information
helps counties and cities see the
patterns and make informed choices about
how they want to direct growth in the
future,” Department of Conservation
Director Darryl Young said. “The
population of California will continue
to grow, and it’s vital that we ensure
there’s enough room for people and
agriculture.”
The Farmland Mapping
and Monitoring Program classifies land
as either farmland (prime being the best
of four types of farmland), grazing
land, urban land, other land or water.
The “other” category includes
low-density "ranchettes," wetlands, and
brush or timberlands unsuitable for
grazing.
In Santa Barbara
County, according to the most recent
FMMP report, a net
total of 2,114 acres
of irrigated farmland — 83 percent of
that prime soils -- were reclassified to
grazing land or non-agricultural uses.
Many of those conversions were due to
fields that had been fallow for three or
more mapping cycles.
Examples of recent
urbanization in Santa Barbara County
include new apartments and a baseball
diamond on the western fringe of
Guadalupe, 15 acres of new homes on the
northern fringe of Santa Maria, the
10-acre “Homes at Ballard Canyon”
development near Buellton, and the
20-acre Maravilla senior living
community in the Goleta area.
Since the 1990 FMMP
survey, Santa Barbara County has gained
4,587 urbanized acres. Irrigated land
occupies 12,445 more acres in 2002 than
it did in 1990, primarily due to
vineyard development in the second half
of the decade. Much of the new irrigated
land had previously been in grazing
uses.
The agricultural land
in Santa Barbara County will continue to
face development pressure in the
foreseeable future. The California
Department of Finance projects that the
county’s population will increase from
about 406,000 in 2000 to nearly 553,000
by 2020.
According to the
California Department of Food and
Agriculture, the gross value of Santa
Barbara County’s agricultural production
was more than $775 million in 2002.
The maps have been
sent to county planning officials and
organizations such as the county Farm
Bureau, Local Agency Formation
Commission, city planners, irrigation
districts and county resource
conservation districts. Printed copies,
enlargements, or digital versions of the
maps are available to the public. Call
(916) 324-0859 or email fmmp@consrv.ca.gov
for more information.
The latest statewide
study by the FMMP, Farmland Conversion
Report 1998-2000, was released last
June. More than 91,000 acres were
urbanized throughout the state – a
30-percent increase from the 1996-98
mapping cycle – and 27 percent of that
total came from irrigated farmland.
Through the
Department of Conservation, the state
offers programs that provide financial
incentives to keep land in agricultural
use.
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