Title
Planning and Building and Agriculture Departments recommending the Board approve and authorize the Chair to sign a letter of support to California Department of Conservation Division of Land Resource Protection that endorses the proposed Sacramento Area Council of Governments and the Metropolitan Planning organization to create a Coordinated Rural Opportunities Plan for our region.
FUNDING: N/A
Body
DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
For the last 15 years, SACOG has worked through its Rural-Urban Connections Strategy to understand and support the potential for our region’s rural, agricultural, and natural resource lands. Most recently, in May 2020, the Regional Prosperity Partnership, comprised of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council, Valley Vision, the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce, and SACOG released a regional prosperity strategy that identified food and agricultural systems as a top priority for fostering inclusive economic growth. This strategy calls for a proactive effort to identify areas with potential to enhance the region’s agricultural economy through focused infrastructure investments in assets like transportation and broadband.
To create a regional strategy, this proposal would develop a Coordinated Rural Opportunities Plan (CROP) that will focus on three areas:
(1) inventory all of our previous RUCS research related to agriculture along with all of the agricultural plans, strategies, and programs throughout the six county region and distill that information to understand the challenges facing agriculture today and the current strategies to address them, (2) identify general themes and geographies where existing strategies are not working as planned or where no strategies have been identified, (3) create a framework for implementation identifying what infrastructure investments are needed to support the continued viability of agriculture in our region.
This project assumes the local efforts to protect agricultural land will be bolstered by CROP. CROP aims to complement any local preservation efforts and needs by highlighting the economic incentives for agriculture and creating a strategy that will help our members and partners compete for grants and secure other available funding to preserve and expand critical agricultural infrastructure necessary for commodity production, local grown initiatives, agritourism, and other related efforts. Critical partners include each of the six counties, agricultural commissioners, farm bureaus, local land trusts, the Regional Prosperity Partnership, and other relevant regional stakeholders. Additional partners and stakeholders will be identified with the help of these critical partners.
ALTERNATIVES
The Board could determine to not sign the letter of support to California Department of Conservation Division of Land Resource Protection , thereby not endorsing the SACOG CROP project with consequences of SACOG not including El Dorado County in their next proposal.
PRIOR BOARD ACTION
The Board of Supervisors has worked in collaboration with SACOG on many projects in the past.
OTHER DEPARTMENT / AGENCY INVOLVEMENT
Chief Administrative Office and Planning and Building
FINANCIAL IMPACT
There is no funding associated with this item. Participation in the SACOG CROP working group will entail a minimal amount of staff time to be dedicated to the effort.
CAO RECOMMENDATION/COMMENTS
Approve as recommended.
CLERK OF THE BOARD FOLLOW UP ACTIONS
1) Clerk of the Board to obtain signature of Chair on one (1) original of the letter of support and mail to California Department of COnservation, Division of Land Resources Protection 801 K Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
2) Clerk of the Board to return one (1) copy of signed letter of support to the Agriculture Department.
STRATEGIC PLAN COMPONENT
Economic Development: This recommendation is in alignment with the County’ Strategic Plan, the Economic Development Component to enable a prosperous and vibrant economy and Infrastructure: Provide, operate and maintain our infrastructure, public facilities, and associated services that protect our community, environment and economic well-being.
CONTACT
Charlene Carveth, Agricultural Commissioner
Tiffany Schmid, Director Planning and Building Department