This month, the landowners of Fresh Run Farm in Bolinas, one of the earliest certified organic farms on the West Coast, signed a 20-year contract with the county that offers property tax relief in exchange for the preservation of the 250 acres as working farmland and wildlife habitat. The contract—known as a “farmland security zone”—falls under what is commonly called the Williamson Act, the primary state legislation directed toward preserving agricultural and open space lands since 1965. Though the Paradise Valley property was already protected with a 10-year contract, on Dec. 5 the county Board of Supervisors approved a new, 20-year deal—known as a “Super Williamson” and far less common across the state. Renee Giacomini Brewer, chief deputy county counsel, said Marin currently has 485 parcels of land in Williamson Act contracts, but just 72 of those parcels are under Super Williamson contracts. “Twenty years is a long time to think about holding a property for agricultural use for most people,” Ms. Brewer said. “Farming is not for wimps or the faint of heart.” Peter Martinelli, the main operator and one of the property owners of Fresh Run, said that despite high real estate pressure in Bolinas, his family is “very committed to the future of agriculture in the area.” “Bolinas is pretty unique in that it has a greenbelt of working farmland from the seashore land and R.C.A. all the way around almost to Dogtown, and we want to preserve that greenbelt—and encourage other properties to take these kinds of steps to do so.” Mr. Martinelli’s grandfather purchased land along Pine Gulch Creek in the 1940s, and his father later raised beef cattle and sheep on the property. In the 80s, Warren Weber, founder of the neighboring Star Route Farms, leased some of the farm for row crops, including artichokes. Mr. Martinelli took over the farm’s operations in 1999 and now sells his produce to two San Francisco restaurants, Quince and Cotogna. His soil is classified as class I, a rare commodity in Marin and a fact Mr. Martinelli attributes both to the creek flowing through the property and to the San Andreas fault that divides it. (The latter, he says, provides a wider spectrum of nutrients). According to the county’s assessor’s office, the contract will reduce the property’s overall assessed value tax in 2018 by around $55,000; its total value, at $400,000, was already far below market value with its previous Williamson Act protections. With a corresponding reduction in the one percent tax, that will amount to about $550 reduction for next year’s property taxes. Under the act’s terms, if Mr. Martinelli does not give notice of his intention to terminate the contract, it automatically renews each year for another 20-year period. Mr. Martinelli isn’t sure if he will be the one farming come that time, but he says the idea is “preservation for the
long-haul.”