Sonoma Land Trust brings lawsuit over conservation easement violations to successful conclusion
Ranch along Highway 37 will remain in agriculture
National land trust community watched case closely
(SANTA ROSA, CALIF., October 29, 2008) — After a three-year lawsuit with the owners of the 528-acre Lower Ranch (also known as Carneros River Ranch) along Highway 37 near San Pablo Bay, the Sonoma Land Trust is pleased to announce a successful settlement that upholds the agricultural conservation easement on the property, pays the Land Trust’s legal fees, and ensures that the landowner’s activities will protect the agricultural resources on the property.
“We take very seriously our responsibility to enforce the conservation easements we hold,” stated Sonoma Land Trust executive director Ralph Benson. “The people of Sonoma County count on us to do so.”
The Land Trust has spent decades working to protect the agricultural and conservation lands at the southern tip of Sonoma County between the Petaluma River and Infineon Raceway, and has acquired more than 5,000 acres there over the years. In the case of Lower Ranch, which is located across the highway from the Port Sonoma marina, the Land Trust holds an agricultural conservation easement that permanently restricts the use of the land to agriculture.
Conservation easements are forever
A conservation easement is a recorded agreement between a landowner and a public agency or qualified nonprofit organization to permanently restrict the use of land to specified conservation purposes including, in this particular case, agriculture. Conservation easements have the benefit of achieving a public purpose while leaving the land in productive private ownership. The owner is generally compensated for the restriction, either in the form of cash or tax benefits. As in this instance, conservation easements bind successive owners of the land. The landowner acquired the ranch in question knowing it was subject to the agricultural conservation easement that the Sonoma Land Trust holds.
Several years ago, the current owner of the ranch, a limited liability corporation associated with Skip Berg and the Port Sonoma marina, began pumping mud from its dredging operations at Port Sonoma onto the agricultural land in a manner the Land Trust felt was inconsistent with the conservation easement. Furthermore, their future plans included a tremendous increase in this activity and did not adequately safeguard the agricultural values of the land. After lengthy but unsuccessful discussions with the landowners, the Land Trust filed suit in 2006 to enforce the terms of its agricultural conservation easement.
Local, state and national impact
The California Attorney General, acting on behalf of the California Coastal Conservancy, joined the Land Trust in the litigation. The Conservancy, having originally financed this conservation easement, in addition to millions of dollars worth of other conservation easements throughout California, felt a strong duty to support the enforcement of the Lower Ranch agricultural conservation easement.
The Land Trust was also supported in the litigation by the California Council of Land Trusts (CCLT), a statewide organization. More than 30 California land trusts signed a letter and CCLT filed a brief in support of the litigation. The land trust community, which stakes its credibility on the permanence of conservation easements, perceived this situation as a worst-case scenario with a well-funded landowner disregarding a conservation easement that was in place when they acquired the property.
The Land Trust also benefited from first-rate legal representation by Robert “Perl” Perlmutter and Matthew Zim of Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP, and Rod Kerr of Kerr & Wagstaffe LLP.
Terms of the settlement
The settlement will allow the landowners to continue to place dredge and fill material on the ranch, but only in accordance with strict protocols and performance standards on the quantities, locations and handling of materials, and stringent standards for salinity, acidity and contaminants. Most important is the requirement that the affected farm land must be returned to active farming and remain in production. The landowners also agreed to pay the Land Trust’s legal fees, which amounted to more than $200,000, and to pay for the increased cost of monitoring the easement to ensure that the performance standards are met going forward.
“We couldn’t stand by and let them divert the use of a productive farm to a mud dump,” said Benson. “At the same time, their contention that mud is ultimately dirt and, with the right handling, can be farmed and farmed well had potential merit. The settlement provides both the landowners and the Land Trust with the framework needed to ensure that this beautiful ranch at the gateway to Sonoma County remains in farming.”
About the Sonoma Land Trust
The Sonoma Land Trust preserves scenic, natural, agricultural and open land for future generations. Since 1976, the Sonoma Land Trust has protected nearly 20,000 acres of beautiful, productive and environmentally significant land. For more information about the Sonoma Land Trust, please visit www.sonomalandtrust.org.
