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Mitigation must be provided to minimize, reduce, or compensate for the loss of farmland. There are several ways a "Project" proponent can minimize, reduce, or compensate for the significant loss of agricultural land, whether significant only by the loss proposed by "Project" or cumulatively significant, including, but not limited to: 1. By providing water supply for agriculture 2. By assisting agriculturists in developing restoration and conservation projects. 3. By purchasing and combining smaller parcels to make agriculture more viable. 4. By conducting or funding flood plain restoration projects that benefit agriculture. 5. By developing or funding buffer zones between urban development and agricultural land. 6. By improving levees to protect agricultural land from flooding. 7. By conducting or funding erosion control projects that benefit agriculture 8. By clustering development of the `Project" to support efficient use of agricultural lands. 9. By conducting or providing funding for techniques that increase production by identifying new processes, new techniques, or new crop potential on heretofore limited agricultural production lands, i.e., converting grazing land to vineyards. 10. By conducting or funding programs that identify best agriculture management practices to increase efficiencies, such as land adjacent to wetlands, and potentially bring more agricultural land into production. 11. By conducting or funding Urban Limit Line studies that provide for improvement of geometric shape and compactness of urban development that reduce pressure to prematurely convert agricultural lands. Another method to mitigate for the loss of agricultural land is to obtain agricultural conservation easements that assure the availability of agricultural land for the long term. The county has hired a consultant to study the feasibility of establishing a countywide mitigation fee. Currently, the American Farmland Trust is assisting property owners in obtaining easements. Williamson Act The project site is currently under Williamson Act Contract No. 69-00023. 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 to 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 (commencing with Section 51200) of Division 1 of Title 5) when any of the following has occurred: (e)(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 1998 leaving 4 (four) years remaining on the existing contract. A full application may not be submitted before December 2004. 5