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Item No. 1 PC: 8-12-93 TA-93-3 Page 1 RECOMMENDATION It is recommended that the Planning Commission: 1. Approve the Negative Declaration; and 2. Forward Development Title Text Amendment No.TA-93-3 to the Board of Supervisors with a recommendation of approval based on the'Bases for Recommendation'contained In the staff report. BASES FOR RECOMMENDATION 1. The proposed Text Amendment is consistent with the General Plan. The proposed change Is consistent with the Objectives and Policies of the General Plan concerning the preservation of agricultural lands and the Introduction of noncompatible uses. 2. The proposed Text Amendment will not have a substantial, adverse effect on properties affected by the Text Amendment. An Initial Study prepared for the proposed Text Amendment, prepared July 8, 1993, indicates that no significant, adverse effects are expected to occur as a result of the proposal. BACKGROUND The provisions permitting the creation of homesite parcels in areas zoned AG (General Agriculture) date back to the early 1970's. The intent of these provisions was to permit a farmer, or the farmer's son or daughter who worked the farm, to live on the property being farmed by facilitating the financing of a residence through the creation of a homesite parcel. The regulations required the farmer to make certain declarations concerning the need for the homesite parcel and, in the case of the son or daughter, the amount of income derived from the farming operation. These provisions resulted in the creation of numerous homesite parcels, many of which within a relatively short period of time were sold to nonfarm individuals who had no connection with the agricultural operation on the adjacent farm parcel. Farmers often were put in the position of either making false statements conceming the need for the homesite parcel or losing the chance of creating the homesite parcel altogether. The current wording in the Development Trtle was intended to reduce past abuses concerning the creation of homesite parcels in commercial agricultural areas by eliminating the reason for the homesite and focusing on the affect of the homesite (density, etc.). It is now apparent that the current regulations have some problems. Under the existing regulations, a farmer with an 80-acre parcel in an AG-40 zone could create three homesite parcels plus a remainder parcel, each of which can accommodate a primary residence (i.e., 80 acres divided by 20 acres, the General Plan density standard). On the other hand, a farmer with a 39-