County supervisors to consider the Ordinance regarding agricultural enterprises that allows camping sites, events

After 10 months of Planning Commission hearingsTHE ordinance of the agricultural enterprise heads to Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors for review on Tuesday.

The ordinance would allow farms and agricultural properties to enter the agritourism business by adding campgrounds, farm stations, special events and tours to their properties.

Small-scale events could include cooking classes, farm-to-table dinners, weddings, writing and yoga workshops, bike races and horseback riding.

In addition, the ordinance would allow vineyards to serve food in wine tasting rooms.

Agricultural uses under the ordinance would include small-scale agricultural processing, farm stands, processing and selling firewood, composting and lumber processing staff letter to the board.

Planning Commissioner John Parke has been working on this for the past five or six years to help farmers and landowners find a way to supplement their income.

“Some of the biggest farms don’t raise enough money to do more than pay their insurance premiums and property taxes,” Parke said. “It’s just hard. You have a lot of people, young entrepreneurs, who have small organic farms and they’re trying to do different all kinds of fun things on their farms and they’re opening up for people to come visit.”

Parke said the ordinance will help provide a more consistent income to farmers who often face years of inconsistent income due to a bad crop.

With more people allowed to visit local farms, they would have a better understanding of the work that goes into farming and the people behind it, particularly in the North County.

“In general, we’d like to see people in the south county have a better understanding of what’s going on in the north county, especially with agriculture,” Parke said. “If we can set them up and have them go to an organic farm or a ranch and learn more about where things come from and how they happen and how people live, they’ll have a greater appreciation for it.”

Susan Petrovici, an attorney representing landowners hoping to take advantage of the ordinance, said the goal is to connect people with agriculture and support struggling farms.

“The whole idea is to get people out to see, first of all, how beautiful California and Santa Barbara in particular is, but also just to let them see what’s going on in agriculture,” Petrovici said.

She said farmers and landowners need such allowances for more income because of how expensive the agricultural industry has become.

“Everything is more expensive. There are a lot more demands on the farming industry and as a result many of them have had to go out of business and/or everyone in the household has to have another job and then the farmer stays on the farm and they go into city to make enough money to keep the whole enterprise going,” Petrovici said.

The issue of setbacks came up a lot at the Planning Commission hearings and likely will again Tuesday. There is concern about how farmers will balance agritourism with protecting cash crops and food crops. Originally, the Planning Commission considered requiring a 1,000-foot distance between ordinance issues and crops, but that would have made many properties ineligible for the ordinance.

Instead, the commission proposed zoning overlays that would allow a limited number of ordinance uses.

For properties outside the overlays, the Planning Commission recommended a standard setback of 200 feet for certain adjacent agricultural uses.

“There are some interesting possibilities that the farm business ordinance will allow,” said Dennis Bozanich, a consultant who has represented North County landowners throughout the planning process. “The real question is whether or not it achieves its goals of providing real economic benefit to property owners.”

Bozanich said he wants the Board of Supervisors to approve the ordinance and that the Planning Commission has to balance a lot of competing interests. However, it leaves larger property owners with little allowance, he said.

“There were some very real concerns about food security, and I understand that,” Bozanich said. “The question is, if you have 500 acres or 1,000 acres, why are you being left to such small, small ancillary agricultural enterprises by this ordinance?”

However, he said it’s a good starting point and hopes there will be amendments in the future to allow for more uses.

The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to review the ordinance at its Tuesday meeting. It is scheduled to start at 9 am in the meeting room on the 4th floor of E. Anapamu str. no. 105.

Public comments can be sent to [email protected] by Monday at 5:00 p.m. or made during the meeting hearing in person or on Zoom.