(a) For the department to approve the termination of the agricultural conservation easement, all of the following findings shall be made:
(1) The termination is consistent with the purposes of this division.
(2) The termination is in the public interest.
(3) The termination is not likely to result in the removal of adjacent lands from commercial agricultural production.
(4) The termination is for an alternate use which is consistent with the applicable provisions of the city or county general plan.
(5) The termination will not result in discontiguous patterns of urban development.
(6) The conservation purposes, as defined in the agricultural conservation easement, can no longer be achieved.
(7) There is no land that is available and suitable for the use to which it is proposed that the restricted land be put to, or that development of the restricted land would provide more contiguous patterns of urban development than development of proximate unrestricted land.
(b) As used in subdivision (a), the following terms have the following meaning:
(1) “Proximate unrestricted land” means land that is not restricted by an easement and which is sufficiently close to land that is restricted so that it can serve as a practical alternative for the use that is proposed for the restricted land.
(2) “Suitable for the use” means that the salient features of the proposed use can be served by land not restricted by an easement. The nonrestricted land may be a single parcel or may be a combination of discontiguous parcels.
(c) The department shall request from the easement holder, and shall consider the easement holder’s assessment of, information regarding the continuing value and viability of the subject property for the conservation purposes for which the easement was originally created. The department may consider the easement holder’s investment in, or experience with, the subject property in evaluating the proposed termination.
(Amended by Stats. 2002, Ch. 616, Sec. 33. Effective January 1, 2003.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018