Strategies and Tactics to Maintain Working Landscapes
Creating strategies to maintain agricultural lands requires a comprehensive approach. Policies and land use preservation tools directed solely at agricultural lands have been effectively used in the Sierra Nevada through conservation easements, transfer of development rights (TDR), and purchase of development rights (PDR) programs. These tools allow landowners to retain ownership of their working landscapes while converting portions of their land wealth into cash.
Undeniably, these land use preservation tools work. However they do not fully address the situation. Agricultural lands are threatened by continued population growth and the necessity to build homes, businesses, and community services to accommodate new residents. A variety of urban programs need to be coordinated with rural programs in order to ensure continued production from our working landscapes. Urban programs, such as encouraging increased density in established communities and supporting commercial mixed use and affordable housing, are not new ideas. Implementing urban policies such as these in the population centers of rural communities throughout the Sierra Nevada in conjunction with existing agricultural land use preservation programs provides an opportunity to consider a comprehensive policy for working landscape maintenance.
The SOSA report is aimed at a wide audience: state and local policy makers, agriculturalists, developers, and concerned citizens of the Sierra Nevada. Understanding the importance of agricultural lands and how the benefits provided by these lands effect our society requires recognition from all these groups. Planned growth can occur in the Sierra Nevada while maintaining a vibrant economy and productive working landscapes. A comprehensive societal approach to sustaining our working landscapes necessitates a broad scope of tools.
In order to create these broad-based strategies and goals, the SOSA report addresses the following topics:
* State Growth Management Practices
* Efficient Land Use
* Increasing Opportunities
* General Plans, Zoning, and Ordinance
* Voluntary Agreements
