If Stanislaus County wants to remain a top ag producer, it must protect prime farmland | Opinion
Sixty years ago, in 1963, the California Legislature created the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), an important state agency which regulates when and where cities can expand their borders in the state’s 58 counties. LAFCOs must consider the effect that any proposal will produce on existing agricultural lands. By guiding development toward vacant urban land, LAFCO assists with the preservation of our valuable agricultural resources while addressing urban infill.
In 2016, Stanislaus LAFCO granted Riverbank a 1,479-acre annexation and Sphere of Influence expansion intended to accommodate the city’s growth for the next 20 years. Currently, the City of Riverbank is requesting yet another border expansion. The majority of the newly proposed 1,535-acre Sphere of Influence expansion is to accommodate River Walk, a proposed senior living development with 2,400–2,800 residences. This raises serious concerns about increased traffic and how it can possibly be mitigated on McHenry, Coffee and Patterson roads.
One of LAFCO’s main charges, as put forth by the legislature, is to protect and promote agriculture. The majority of Riverbank’s proposed 1,535-acre Sphere of Influence expansion area is considered prime farmland.
Before granting any expansion to its borders, Stanislaus LAFCO is requiring Riverbank to identify a range of alternatives that focus on lands within the Sphere of Influence on non-prime lands. LAFCO cites ample acres in the city’s 2016 expansion, within city limits, to accommodate housing. This is demonstrated in Riverbank’s Housing Element inventory of 6,712 potential housing units.
LAFCO’s Sphere of Influence states that boundaries “shall, to the extent possible, maintain a separation between existing communities to protect open space and agricultural lands and the identity of an individual community.” Riverbank’s proposed expansion extends along the Stanislaus River to McHenry Avenue, adjacent to development in the unincorporated Del Rio community area. If the county’s community plan and Riverbank’s proposed expansion were developed to their extents, no separation of communities or agricultural land would remain north of Patterson and Ladd Roads.
The proposed River Walk project is adjacent to the Stanislaus River, a natural resource that provides open space, wildlife habitat and aquifer restoration. The River Walk project hopscotches over Riverbank’s current Sphere of Influence in order to locate on a scenic river. But the land along the river is a flood plain, and Riverbank has made no reference to the structural soundness of the levees that were constructed over 70 years ago, nor is there reference to the impacts of climate change on the river flow. Additionally, 150 acres of the project are riparian habitat.
If Stanislaus County intends to remain one of America’s top 10 ag producing counties, it must protect its prime farmland. If our cities accommodate growth by incrementally expanding their borders, Stanislaus County is destined to follow the path of Los Angeles County — it will become a commuter county with traffic congestion, crime, unaffordable housing and all the costs associated with unsustainable growth (with the caveat that Los Angeles County was the nation’s most productive agricultural county for 45 years, until 1955).
Each of the county’s nine cities needs to accommodate growth by building up, repurposing underutilized and blighted areas, infilling and putting development on the poorest soils. Stanislaus County already has plans to develop 88,558 acres within its cities and their general plans. There are hundreds of acres available for housing within Riverbank’s Sphere of Influence. Stanislaus County’s formal response to the proposed River Walk project states, “It’s premature and does not maintain a logical land-use pattern.”
Simply stated, Riverbank lacks a justifiable reason to further expand its borders.