Delta solar farm could get green light under new law/The Record

By Alex Breitler
Record Staff Writer
January 19, 2012 12:00 AMSTOCKTON - A Delta farmer's plan to build a 120-acre solar array might yet bear fruit, if growing actual crops on his land is as hopeless as he claims.

San Joaquin County supervisors this week declined to take the unusual step of canceling Michael J. Robinson's contract under the Williamson Act, a state program that preserves farmland.

But they did decide that the 20-megawatt solar farm - said to be the first of its kind for San Joaquin - is compatible with the county's General Plan.

That allows Robinson to seek an easement for his solar panels, thanks to a new state law written last year by state Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis.

The case pits two California priorities against each other: preserving farmland versus building a supply of clean renewable energy. Farm advocates warn that the second goal will pave over the first.

"There's a statewide trend in many counties in which developers are looking to basically put some permanent hurt on prime farmland because it's the path of least resistance," Chris Scheuring, an attorney with the California Farm Bureau Federation, told supervisors Tuesday.

"There really is a solar 'land rush' on in the state of California," he said.

Wolk's law is an attempt at compromise, by encouraging the development of solar farms on "marginally productive or physically impaired land," and preserving better lands for crops.

Under her law, Williamson Act contracts are rescinded and landowners pay a fee equaling more than 6 percent of the value of their land, while agreeing to restore lands once the easements have expired.

It'll be up to the state Department of Conservation to decide if Robinson's land is lousy enough to qualify under the law, which took effect Jan. 1. The project could become the first in the state to be approved in this manner.

Stockton attorney Michael Hakeem, who represents Robinson and the developer of the project, Walnut Creek-based D.G. Power, praised the county board's decision to give the farmer a chance.

"I couldn't have asked for any more than they provided," Hakeem said. "This is terrible land."

Robinson bought the Roberts Island property in 2006 but has never, he said, been successful at farming it because of heavy salt loads in the soil - unusually poor soil for the fertile Delta.

A solar farm seemed a profitable alternative.

Robinson wants to lease his land to D.G. Power, which would erect the solar panels near existing power lines.

The land, however, is protected under the Williamson Act, in which landowners agree to keep their properties undeveloped in exchange for tax breaks.

Robinson could file for nonrenewal status, but that process takes a decade.

Nor can the contract be canceled outright. That would require supervisors to agree that concerns about renewable energy "substantially outweigh" the goals of farmland preservation, a finding which county officials said is impossible to make.

Wolk's law provides a new, third alternative.

As for fulfilling the requirements of the county General Plan, Robinson says he will graze the land to maintain some kind of agriculture operation on site - a requirement for many projects proposed within the Delta.

Representatives of the state and local farm bureaus are not satisfied.

"To suggest this is anything less than an industrial facility is not exactly accurate," Bruce Blodgett, head of the San Joaquin Farm Bureau Federation, told supervisors.

A spokesman for the Department of Conservation said no applications for easements have yet been received under Wolk's law, Senate Bill 618. But many inquiries have been made.

The conflict isn't unique to San Joaquin County. In October, the state Farm Bureau sued the Fresno County Board of Supervisors, claiming it overstepped its authority when it allowed development of a solar power project on what the bureau described as prime farmland.

Contact reporter Alex Breitler at (209) 546-8295 or abreitler@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/breitlerblog.