The Santa Barbara County Planning Commission continued its discussion this week over rules for agritourism businesses that would be contained in the agriculture enterprise ordinance.

The ordinance will dictate allowed uses for agriculture properties wanting to add campgrounds, farm stays, special events and tours. 

The commission on Wednesday considered recommendations for how many events agriculture properties can have a year, maximum attendees, and buffers between crops and facilities or activities. 

The commission had previously discussed a setback between food crops and recreational activities allowed in the ordinance, meaning that farm stays, campgrounds and other activities wouldn’t be allowed within 1,000 feet of crops. 

That idea has been unpopular among landowners.

For an alternative, Commissioners John Parke and Roy Reed suggested an overlay or exclusion area that would make properties within certain areas ineligible for having campgrounds, farm stays and other recreational activities permitted in the agriculture enterprise ordinance. The overlays would cover large-scale row crop agriculture areas.

Parke presented draft maps to show where the overlays would go. The draft maps can be seen here.

The overlays would go over the western Santa Maria Valley, the eastern Santa Maria Valley, the Highway 135 corridor and the Lompoc Valley. 

Details as to the exact areas of the overlays still need to be finalized by county staff and the commission. 

The purpose of the agriculture enterprise ordinance is to provide additional uses for property owners in Agriculture II zones.

The overlays mean that properties within the designated areas do not get permission for those additional uses. However, there most likely would be some allowed uses, such as farm stands, for properties in the overlays.

Parke argued that the 1,000-foot setback was overkill and would open up a whole new set of problems. 

“This is a Pandora’s box,” Parke said.

Parke and Reed worked on the overlay idea and spoke with Santa Barbara County Third District Supervisor Joan Hartmann, landowners, farmers and former commissioners. 

Parke said the 1,000-foot buffer between row crops and any forms of agritourism would fail to protect the row crops from contamination.

The overlays would protect large-scale crop owners without interfering with smaller-crop growers wanting to enter agritourism. 

“I confessed to Supervisor Hartmann that if we keep this 1,000-foot setback, it’s going to completely undermine this ordinance,” Parke said. “And even though I’ve been working on it for five years, I would vote against it. I would say kill it and come back another day.”

During public comment, speakers were generally in support of the overlay idea, but a few worried it would hinder economic development. 

Dennis Bozanich, a consultant representing North County landowners, said that while he thought the overlays were a good solution, a 100- or 50-foot buffer would allow more people to participate in the agriculture enterprise ordinance. 

“This is about providing another revenue stream for property owners, and it barely does that now, but to then exclude them because of the size of the setbacks is going to be frustrating for everybody,” Bozanich said. “We had hoped there would be more incentives, and folks would have more incentives to develop their properties, and this feels like just barely something but not enough.”

Sep Wolf spoke representing Buttonwood Farm & Vineyard in support of the overlays. 

“The 1,000-foot setback was a no-go for us,” Wolf said. “We would be the poster child for a property that could take advantage of and reap the benefits from the agriculture enterprise ordinance, but with the 1,000-foot setback, we’d get zero benefit.”

The commissioners are scheduled to further discuss the overlays on Aug. 28, which they hope to be their last meeting on the ordinance before it goes to the Board of Supervisors for final approval.

The goal is to get the ordinance approved by the end of the year to allow landowners to start planning for next year’s tourism season.  

Outside the overlays, the commissioners are recommending a 100-foot setback from the property line of the agriculture premises where facilities or activities are located, and 400 feet between facilities or activities and residences on adjacent premises.

Additionally, they are recommending a 200-f00t setback from the property line where facilities or activities are located when there are food crops or orchards on the adjacent property. 

The commissioners also discussed rules for activities such as equestrian events, trail runs and bike races.

They are recommending that properties can’t have more than 25 event-days a year and no more than 10 event-days a month. They also discussed how many attendees would be allowed at those events. 

For 40-acre properties, the commissioners are recommending 50 event attendees; properties with 320 acres could have 100 attendees, and 1,000-acre properties could have 200 attendees. 

For properties hoping to add campgrounds, 40- to 60-acre properties could have 10 campsites, 60- to 100-acre properties could have 15 campsites; 100- to 320-acre properties could have 20 sites, properties with more than 320 acres could have 30 sites and no more than 60 sites on a 6,320-acre property or larger.

People interested in commenting on the ordinance can do so in person at the Aug. 28 hearing or on Zoom, or email their comment to dvillalo@countyofsb.org by noon Aug. 26.