Amador County – The Amador County General Plan panel discussed the Williamson Act last week, hearing the limitations and allowances on county agricultural land. Supervisor Richard Forster said “you can’t have a commercial business.” County Planner Susan Grijalva said “our local Williamson Act zoning does allow some business operations.” Amador’s planning department is looking into home occupation permits and home-based industry, but the county must define agricultural property, she said. Forster said “in this county, there are huge amounts of businesses that are being run on Williamson Act land.” Supervisor Brian Oneto said: “How do you shut down an economy? You make it hard to do anything.” He said ranchers may find themselves “starving to death,” so they do welding side jobs, or open fruit stands. Commissioner Andy Byrne said the law “protects neighbors from traffic impacts and a whole list of things.” Jeffrey Gibson of the Amador Wine Grape Growers’ Association said Amador County’s zoning and laws are, by comparison, a godsend. Gibson said a “winery conditional use permit” in Napa “will tell you where you have to buy your grapes” – that is, from Napa – and “you have to run your tasting room by appointment because of traffic” impacts. “I didn’t end up in Amador County just by chance,” Gibson said. “I shopped around.” Grijalva said if the state cuts Williamson Act funding, as is being talked about, the local Williamson Act zoning and programs will remain in place. The California Department of Conservation’s website said the Williamson Land Conservation Act of 1965, “enables local governments to enter into contracts with private landowners for the purpose of restricting specific parcels of land to agricultural or related open space use. In return, landowners receive property tax assessments which are much lower than normal because they are based upon farming and open space uses as opposed to full market value.” The act “has been the state’s premier agricultural land protection program since” 1965. “Nearly 16.9 million of the state’s 29 million acres of farm and ranch land are currently protected under the Williamson Act.” One-third of Williamson Act farmers and ranchers said “without the act they would no longer own their parcel,” according to a 1989 University of California study, “Land in the Balance.” Story by Jim Reece