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SACRAMENTO -- The
amount of agricultural land in the
six-county greater Sacramento area
continued to decrease as urban areas
grew, according to new maps released by
the California Department of
Conservation.
More than 12,600
acres were urbanized between 2000 and
2002 in the Sacramento Area Council of
Governments (SACOG) counties:
Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado, Sutter,
Yolo and Yuba. When all factors
affecting agricultural use were
combined, farm and grazing land acreage
experienced a decrease of nearly 29,000
acres during the two-year period.
Additional factors include more detailed
mapping of low-density rural residential
uses, ecological restoration projects,
and land idling.
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
underway.
“These maps are
designed to help counties and cities see
the patterns of land-use change and make
informed choices about how they want to
direct future growth,” Department of
Conservation Director Darryl Young said.
“It’s critical to ensure that the needs
of both a growing population and
agriculture, a mainstay of the economy,
can be met.”
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 the SACOG
counties, the latest report documents
urban land increases of 12,614 acres and
the net loss of 28,959 acres from
agricultural categories. Since 1990,
urbanized land in the counties increased
by more than 53,400 acres – an area
larger in size than the western Placer
county cities of Roseville, Rocklin,
Lincoln, and Loomis combined. During the
same period, nearly 104,000 acres were
reclassified out of agricultural
categories.
In addition, cities
within Placer, Sacramento, Sutter and
Yolo counties reported that more than
8,400 acres – 87 percent of which are
currently in agricultural use -- have
been committed to future
non-agricultural use due to the approval
of subdivision maps, the sale of bonds
for infrastructure, or other permanent
commitments. No information was
available from Yuba and El Dorado
counties.
A closer look at each
of the six counties:
♦ In Yolo County, the
amount of urbanization more than
tripled, from 353 to 1,260 acres. Most
of the conversions of farmland to urban
land were due to new home construction
in and around Davis, Woodland and West
Sacramento - for example, the 500-acre
Bridgeway Island housing development and
Southport Business Park in West
Sacramento. Total irrigated farmland
acreage remained relatively stable,
primarily due to new vineyards and other
crops in the northwestern portion of the
county. More detailed mapping of rural
residential areas and ecological
restoration in the Yolo Bypass
contributed to a larger net decrease in
total farm and grazing land than in the
prior period.
♦ Placer County
gained 5,408 urban acres, more than 90
percent of which had been farm or
grazing land. This was a 40 percent
increase in the urbanization rate
compared to the 1998-2000 figures. The
largest conversion noted was the
Woodcreek West development in north
Roseville. That city itself added about
1,300 acres of new housing and
commercial development.
♦ El Dorado County’s
urbanization rate increased
substantially, with 2,425 acres
converting in 2000-02 versus 441 acres
in 1998-2000. The vast majority of new
urban land occurred on former grazing
land. There were numerous new or
expanded housing developments noted,
including Serrano (600 acres), Crown
Valley (80 acres) and Stonebriar (65
acres) in El Dorado Hills and the Milton
Ranch Estates (115 acres) in Shingle
Springs.
♦ In Sacramento
County, fewer acres were converted to
urban land in 2000-02 (2,741) than in
the prior cycle (6,430). Conversions
affected each of the incorporated
cities, ranging from expansion at the
Sacramento International Airport to the
Lakeside Community area of Elk Grove,
where the new Elliott Ranch Elementary
School, AAA Call Center building, and
housing covered about 375 acres. Farm
and grazing acres decreased by 4,551 in
the 2000-02 cycle due to urbanization
and improved mapping of rural
residential areas, a decrease from the
5,729-acre drop in 1998-2000.
♦ Urbanization was
also slightly down in Sutter County,
where 488 acres urbanized between
2000-02, compared with 692 acres in the
prior cycle. Examples of new development
included a new Home Depot and Applebee’s
at Colusa Junction in Yuba City and
about 223 new acres of houses at
California Homes south of Yuba City.
More detailed mapping of rural
residential and commercial land
contributed to a larger net decrease in
agricultural land than in 1998-2000.
♦Yuba County
experienced lower rates of conversion
activity as well. In the latest mapping
cycle, urban land increased by 292
acres; the 1998-2000 figure was 362
acres. Increases in building density
near Marysville contributed nearly 100
acres to the new urban total. Net losses
to farm and grazing land declined from
2,242 to 1,419 acres, and consisted
primarily of more detailed rural
residential and wetlands delineation.
The agricultural land
in the SACOG counties will continue to
face development pressure in the
foreseeable future. The California
Department of Finance projects that the
area’s population will increase from
about 1.9 million in 2000 to 2.8 million
by 2020.
According to the
California Department of Food and
Agriculture, the gross value of
agricultural production in the
six-county SACOG area was more than $1.1
billion 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.
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