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Less than a month after the Visalia City Council threw out their adopted Ag Mitigation Program (AMP) the Sierra Club has sued Visalia over the change. The brief was filed August 31 in Tulare County Superior Court. Included in their request was an injunction against implementation of the new City policy — before a full-on court battle takes place.

Homebuilders don’t like AMPs. The Tulare County Farm Bureau says they don’t need it. The Visalia City Council has been watching the boom in residential construction — up 40% in the past year — and worries the city is running out of space to build new homes.

The mitigation program was originally written to slow the encroachment of development onto farmland.  The program required an amount of land be designated for conservation when development would result in the loss of farmland, according to the City of Visalia’s website. Those requirements were placed on two of the City’s three tiers of land.

The way the city set up the AMP, builders within the city’s Tier 1 boundary do not have to pay an ag mitigation fee. Now after almost eight years since the adoption of the 2030 General Plan, Tier 1 has just 1,444 acres out of 10,460 acres of residential land left — it is 86% developed. Development within Tiers II and III can only occur after certain building permit thresholds are met. In this case, the threshold is 5,800 residential permits. Visalia is close to spilling over into Tier II, if it is not already there. And builders have already filed applications.

Even though the plan was adopted in 2014, no one has had to pay the AMP fee yet. City Council changed the plan before payments were set to start.

The Visalia City Council in early August opened the door to another 7,500 acres that could be developed in both Tier II and later Tier III. That includes 1,500 acres in the next threshold – Tier II. But before they opened the door – they threw out the ag mitigation fee that had been part of the General Plan, adopted in 2014.

Without a challenge, Tier II land could soon be subdivided and parceled out with no waiting required. To make this policy change legal, the General Plan could be modified, the Visalia City Attorney advised the Council. California case law has changed since 2014, the City Attorney said.

Now a judge will decide the merits and more importantly whether an injunction on new development in Tier II will be approved before the case from the Sierra Club begins.