San Diego County’s Climate Action Plan is, so to speak, bearing fruit. The County is taking steps to preserve agricultural land, based on a recent CAP monitoring report, which verified that “keeping agricultural land in production helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions by eliminating the increased traffic, heating, and air conditioning that comes with development.”
Utilizing the Purchase of Agricultural Easement (PACE) program, the County pays agricultural landowners to place a permanent easement on their properties, so that it can be used for farming or ranching only–no future development. The County has acquired more than 2,000 acres, and new rules will be expanding eligibility to all agricultural land in unincorporated areas. County Supervisors recently voted to pay $690,000 to save roughly 300 acres–143 acres in Fallbrook and 155 acres near El Cajon–from future development.
Those of us who value our rural and semi-rural areas, have always maintained that the significant value of agricultural land has always been ignored. Instead, the dollar signs in the eyes of developers looking for profit, and government officials looking for more tax revenue, have always taken priority. Thank you, Climate Action Plan activists, for beginning to make a change in the values we live by.
For more information, check out this article from the County News Center (9-11-19).
