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Williamson Act Contract A portion of the project site is currently under Williamson Act Contract No. 72-0069. Section 66474.4 of the California State Subdivision Map Act states: (a) The legislative body of a city or county shall deny approval of a tentative map, or parcel map for which a tentative map was not required, if it finds that either the resulting parcels following a subdivision of that land would be too small to sustain their agricultural use of the land, and if the legislative body finds that the land is subject to any of the following: (e) This section shall not apply to land that is subject to a contract entered into pursuant to the California Land Conservation Act of 1965 (Chapter 7 [commending with Section 51200] of Division 1 of Title 5) when any of the following has occurred: (2) Written notice of non-renewal of the contract has been served, as provided in Section 51245, and as a result of that notice, there are no more than three years remaining in the term of the contract. A Notice of Non-Renewal was filed in 2002, leaving seven (7) years remaining on the existing contract. An application for the underlying subdivision could not be submitted before December 2008. Conclusion The Community Development Department cannot support the proposed General Plan Map Amendment application based on the information contained in this memo. The Department's concerns include the following: • The project is located adjacent to the Western Farm Services facility and the only mitigation measure identified was closure of the plant. As of this date, the plant remains in operation. This has the potential of the possibility of chemical spillage or explosion. • Construction of the underlying subdivision project would require conversion of Vernalis from a rural community to an urban community. The community of Vernalis would expand by over 100%. To achieve this goal, urban services must be available to the project. The Department of Public Works has indicated they will not provide services to such a project. Because of this, conversion of Vernalis to an urban community would not be possible. • Approximately 137 acres of the project site is located on land designated as "Prime Farm Land." This area has a Williamson Act contract which will not expire until 2012. Preservation of farm land is a paramount concern to the County. The proposed project would remove a valuable asset from the County's farm land. NOTE: The pre-application conference is designed to inform prospective applicants of General Plan consistency, zoning consistency, public improvement requirements, preliminary design constraints and opportunities, and major environmental and safety issues. This information is provided in the hope of assisting the applicant in submitting a 8