Bill Would Permit Farmers to Build Worker Housing Despite Local Zoning

Thursday, April 16, 2009
Jake Henshaw
Visalia Times-Delta

Growers would have more opportunities to build more housing for farmworkers on their property if a bill that passed its first legislative review Wednesday becomes law.

Assembly Bill 494 would allow farmers to build housing on up to 10 acres and would prevent local officials from blocking it with zoning rules.

"We want to provide safe, decent and affordable housing" for farmworkers, said Assemblywoman Anna Caballero, D-Salinas.

Opposition

Opponents complained that the bill would lead to excessively large housing developments, possibly without proper sewage and water services, and would unnecessarily override local land-use planning.

"The bill is not a modest approach," said John Gamper of the California Farm Bureau.

AB 494 passed the Assembly Local Government Committee, which Caballero chairs, and next goes to the Assembly Agriculture Committee.

The measure builds on a 1999 bill that allows growers to use up to 5 acres of land in the Williamson Act land- preservation program for farmworker housing.

The Williamson Act gives farmers a tax break to keep their crops in farmland instead of selling out to developers, with the state backfilling counties for lost property taxes.

Caballero said many farmworkers now are sleeping under trees and bridges or in overcrowded attics and garages.

The measure also for the first time would prohibit cities or counties from
denying approval of such developments in or outside of Williamson Act land.

The bill also would drop the existing requirement that the development be within a city or contiguous to tracts already zoned for development.

Gamper said there wasn't any evidence that the existing 5-acre limit was inhibiting farmworker housing development, and Caballero said she was open to discussions on lot size and density.

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