Differential Assessment as Land Use Policy: The California Case

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Abstract
The California Land Conservation Act of 1965 is enabling legislation designed to maintain the agricultural economy of the state, prevent discontiguous patterns of urban/suburban development, and assist in the preservation of prime agricultural and open space lands. The program in California is among the largest in the states that have enacted legislation to maintain land in agricultural and open space uses. In fiscal 1974–75, 13.7 million acres were in the program at an estimated cost of $58.17 million in local property taxes foregone or shifted throughout the state. This legislation has generally been ineffective as a land use management technique to stimulate orderly growth. Not only are the incentives inadequate to induce landowners in the rural-urban fringe to participate, but its unsystematic implementation by local governments has also diminished its effect on the allocation of land between uses. However, the program probably has enhanced the economic viability of agriculture by providing for taxation consistent with sustained agricultural use in rural areas affected by land speculation but not by the prospect of urbanization in the relevant future.

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