The Williamson Act Program enables local governments to enter into contracts with private landowners for the purpose of restricting specific parcels of land to agricultural or related open space use. Private land within locally-designated agricultural preserve areas is eligible for enrollment under contract. The minimum term for contracts is ten years. However, since the contract term automatically renews on each anniversary date of the contract, the actual term is essentially indefinite. Landowners receive substantially reduced property tax assessments in return for enrollment under Williamson Act contract. Property tax assessments of Williamson Act contracted land are based upon generated income as opposed to potential market value of the property. Local governments receive a partial subvention of forgone property tax revenues from the state via the Open Space Subvention Act of 1971. Contracts may be exited at the option of the landowner or local government by initiating the process of term nonrenewal. Under this process, the remaining contract term (nine years in the case of an original term of ten years) is allowed to lapse, with the contract null and void at the end of the term. During the nonrenewal process, the annual tax assessment continually increases each year until it is equivalent to current tax rates at the end of the nonrenewal period. Under a set of specifically defined circumstances, a contract may be cancelled without completing the process of term nonrenewal. Contract cancellation, however, involves a comprehensive review and approval process, and the payment of a fee by the landowner equal to 12.5 percent of the full market value of the property in question. Local activities such as eminent domain, or, in some rare cases city annexation, also result in the termination of Williamson Act contracts.More information about the California Land Conservation Act of 1965, Williamson Act - can be found by viewing Government Code, Title 5, Division 1, Part 1, Chapter 7, Section 51200 et. seq.Last updated 3/5/2025http://www.conservation.ca.gov/dlrp/lca/lrcc/Pages/governing_statutes.aspx

This polygon shapefile depicts land parcels that are regulated under the Willimason Act in Monterey County, California as of 2007. The California Land Conservation Act, better known as the Williamson Act, has been the California’s agricultural land protection program since its enactmentin1965. The Williamson Act preserves agricultural and open space lands through property tax incentives and voluntary restrictive use contracts. Private landowners voluntarily restrict their land to agricultural and compatible open space uses under minimum ten year rolling term contracts with local governments. In return, restricted parcels are assessed for property tax purposes at a rate consistent with their actual use, rather than potential market value. The purpose of the Williamson Act is to preserve the County’s prime soils and intensive high value agricultural operations, and to discourage premature and unnecessary conversion of agricultural land to urban use. This layer is part of a collection of GIS data for Monterey County in California.

This layer represents parcels under active Williamson Act and Farmland Security Zone contracts. Tabular data for the basis of this layer was obtained from the Kern County Assessor's Office by way of the KQ12PO reports. These tables were joined to the 2022 parcel layer. This data represents parcels under active status for the year 2022, for which final reports were submitted to the State of California in January, 2023. A new layer is generated yearly.“The Williamson Act is a means to restrict the uses of agricultural and open space lands to farming and ranching uses during the length of the contract period. The Williamson Act Program was also envisioned as a way for local governments to integrate the protection of open space and agricultural resources into their overall strategies for planning urban growth patterns. To this end, three principal objectives were originally outlined:” Protection of Agricultural Resources, Preservation of Open Space Land, and Promotion of Efficient Urban Growth Patterns.“The Williamson Act Program enables local governments to enter into contracts with private landowners for the purpose of restricting specific parcels of land to agricultural or related open space use. Private land within locally-designated agricultural preserve areas is eligible for enrollment under contract. The minimum term for contracts is ten years. However, since the contract term automatically renews on each anniversary date of the contract, the actual term is essentially indefinite. Landowners receive substantially reduced property tax assessments in return for enrollment under Williamson Act contract. Property tax assessments of Williamson Act contracted land are based upon generated income as opposed to potential market value of the property. Local governments receive a partial subvention of forgone property tax revenues from the state via the Open Space Subvention Act of 1971. Contracts may be exited at the option of the landowner or local government by initiating the process of term nonrenewal. Under this process, the remaining contract term (nine years in the case of an original term of ten years) is allowed to lapse, with the contract null and void at the end of the term. During the nonrenewal process, the annual tax assessment continually increases each year until it is equivalent to current tax rates at the end of the nonrenewal period. Under a set of specifically defined circumstances, a contract may be cancelled without completing the process of term nonrenewal. Contract cancellation, however, involves a comprehensive review and approval process, and the payment of a fee by the landowner equal to 12.5 percent of the full market value of the property in question. Local activities such as eminent domain, or, in some rare cases city annexation, also result in the termination of Williamson Act contracts.”http://www.conservation.ca.gov/dlrp/lca/basic_contract_provisionsMore information about the California Land Conservation Act of 1965, Williamson Act - can be found by viewing Government Code, Title 5, Division 1, Part 1, Chapter 7, Section 51200 et. seq.Last updated 3/5/2025http://www.conservation.ca.gov/dlrp/lca/lrcc/Pages/governing_statutes.aspx

URL from idinfo/citation in CSDGM metadata.

A display of all the land within the County which receive tax breaks under the Williamson Act.

This polygon shapefile depicts Williamson Act Parcels with an ongoing contract within the unincorporated areas of the County of Santa Clara, California. The California Land Conservation Act, better known as the Williamson Act, has been the California’s agricultural land protection program since its enactment in1965. The Williamson Act preserves agricultural and open space lands through property tax incentives and voluntary restrictive use contracts. Private landowners voluntarily restrict their land to agricultural and compatible open space uses under minimum ten year rolling term contracts with local governments. In return, restricted parcels are assessed for property tax purposes at a rate consistent with their actual use, rather than potential market value. The purpose of the Williamson Act is to preserve the County’s prime soils and intensive high value agricultural operations, and to discourage premature and unnecessary conversion of agricultural land to urban use. This layer is part of a collection of GIS data for Santa Clara County, California.

This coverage can be used for basic applications such as viewing, querying, and map output production, or to provide a basemap to support graphical overlays and analyses of geospatial data.

The Williamson Act Program enables local governments to enter into contracts with private landowners for the purpose of restricting specific parcels of land to agricultural or related open space use. Private land within locally-designated agricultural preserve areas is eligible for enrollment under contract. The minimum term for contracts is ten years. However, since the contract term automatically renews on each anniversary date of the contract, the actual term is essentially indefinite. Landowners receive substantially reduced property tax assessments in return for enrollment under Williamson Act contract. Property tax assessments of Williamson Act contracted land are based upon generated income as opposed to potential market value of the property. Local governments receive a partial subvention of forgone property tax revenues from the state via the Open Space Subvention Act of 1971. Contracts may be exited at the option of the landowner or local government by initiating the process of term nonrenewal. Under this process, the remaining contract term (nine years in the case of an original term of ten years) is allowed to lapse, with the contract null and void at the end of the term. During the nonrenewal process, the annual tax assessment continually increases each year until it is equivalent to current tax rates at the end of the nonrenewal period. Under a set of specifically defined circumstances, a contract may be cancelled without completing the process of term nonrenewal. Contract cancellation, however, involves a comprehensive review and approval process, and the payment of a fee by the landowner equal to 12.5 percent of the full market value of the property in question. Local activities such as eminent domain, or, in some rare cases city annexation, also result in the termination of Williamson Act contracts.More information about the California Land Conservation Act of 1965, Williamson Act - can be found by viewing Government Code, Title 5, Division 1, Part 1, Chapter 7, Section 51200 et. seq.Last updated 3/5/2025http://www.conservation.ca.gov/dlrp/lca/lrcc/Pages/governing_statutes.aspx

This polygon shapefile depicts land parcels that are regulated under the Willimason Act in Monterey County, California as of 2011. The California Land Conservation Act, better known as the Williamson Act, has been the California’s agricultural land protection program since its enactmentin1965. The Williamson Act preserves agricultural and open space lands through property tax incentives and voluntary restrictive use contracts. Private landowners voluntarily restrict their land to agricultural and compatible open space uses under minimum ten year rolling term contracts with local governments. In return, restricted parcels are assessed for property tax purposes at a rate consistent with their actual use, rather than potential market value. The purpose of the Williamson Act is to preserve the County’s prime soils and intensive high value agricultural operations, and to discourage premature and unnecessary conversion of agricultural land to urban use. This layer is part of a collection of GIS data for Monterey County in California.

The polygon shapefile identifies parcels within the nine county San Francisco Bay Area Region, California which are accurate identifications of Williamson Act contracted land for the California Open Space Subvention Act Program in Fiscal Year 2006-2007. Refer to Resource Quality entries for attribute table field definitions. The Williamson Act dataset represents parcels within a county with a Type I (a.k.a. "Prime"), Type II (a.k.a. "Sub-Prime") or Open Space Type II Williamson Act (WA).

This polygon shapefile depicts boundaries for Commercial Agricultural Resource Areas in the County of Santa Cruz, California. Commerical agricultural land includes all land which meets the criteria specified in County's General Plan, including all land enforcably restricted with a Land Conservation Act (Williamson Act) contract for agricultural preserve status (see pages G-1 and G-2 from glossary of County's 1994 General Plan). Land classifications for this coverage include viable, viable in utility assessment districts, limited in large blocks, limited in utility assessment districts, limited experiencing use conflicts, vineyard and viable within coastal zone. This layer is part of a collection of GIS data created for Santa Cruz County, California.