Vance Kennedy: For five mayors, protecting farmland unimportant

The Bee had it right that the mayors of Stanislaus County’s small towns were petty in replacing Mayor Matt Beekman on the LAFCO board, but those mayors also indicated their priorities – and it’s not saving farmland. The more developers pay for removing prime farmland, the more money there is to permanently preserve our agricultural land. The so-called mitigation charge is to reimburse society as a whole for the loss of a national treasure.

That farmland produces food and, where flood irrigation is used, also recharges the groundwater that allows the Valley economy to survive during major droughts.

Paying 40 percent of the value of farmland to help save the best farmland in the world would add perhaps $1,000 (about one third of 1 percent) to the cost of a finished house. If the developers require that small amount to stay in business, they need to find other employment.

This is a democracy. In the next election we can learn whether the residents of those small towns agree with their mayors in having society essentially fail to protect society’s future. It will be up to the residents to remember their mayors’ decisions and vote their views then.

My impression is that most residents want to save farmland and would have applauded Beekman’s decision.

This story was originally published July 14, 2015 at 6:24 PM with the headline "Vance Kennedy: For five mayors, protecting farmland unimportant."