Point Reyes Light - November 28, 2002
MALT trying to buy development rights
By Dave Mitchell & Ivan Gale
Members of the California Coastal Conservancy will decide at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 4, in Oakland whether to disburse $350,000 to MALT so it can buy a conservation easement over Mervyn and Mary Zimmerman’s ranch in Marshall.
The hearing, which will be held in the State Building, Second Floor, Room 11, at 1515 Clay St., reflects a major concession by the Zimmermans to economic reality.
The Zimmermans’ 308-acre Diamond Z Ranch overlooks Tomales Bay, and Merv Zimmerman has previously complained that the Marin Agricultural Land Trust pays landowners too little for sacrificing their non-agricultural-development rights.
MALT typically pays about 50 percent of the land’s market value to secure an agricultural easement over a ranch, and last year Zimmerman wrote The Light, "Our lands have big-dollar views, but because our lands have been zoned A-60, we were told MALT would not pay $1,500 per acre."
In contrast, Zimmerman wrote, "A few years ago...[the Dunn horse] ranch in Marshall sold to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area for $70,000 an acre to stop houses from being built – and the [seller] still lives there today. Our lands border this property."
Zimmerman at the time explained, "We would like to split off our house and some acres, so we might be able to pass the remaining property over to the children at a price maybe they could afford."
However, county government was reluctant to approve the lotsplit, he said, and "we were told that because we’re in our 70s, maybe the plan wouldn’t be beneficial to agriculture. No matter that we are [in] fourth and fifth generations of agriculture, we would have to put the remaining land into an agricultural-conservation easement for no money [to qualify for a lotsplit]. This is political blackmail from the county."
Three years ago, Zimmerman noted, "an easement is forever...It affects our children and our grandchildren. Why can’t we be paid what these lands are worth?"
By then, however, the ranch was already in financial trouble. In 1997, a fire on the Diamond Z Ranch destroyed two barns, nine vehicles, and a considerable amount of ranch equipment – an estimated $325,000 loss.
In the aftermath, the ranchers in 1999 sold off their 344 Holstein dairy cows – their entire milk-producing herd. The ranchers at the time blamed escalating feed costs, tighter animal-waste regulations, and flat milk prices.
This week neither the Zimmermans nor MALT would comment on the proposal to the state conservancy.