Purchase of Agricultural Conservation Easements (PACE) Program

About the Program

Category: Planning (Best in Category)

Year: 2015

Under the Purchase of Agricultural Conservation Easement (PACE) program, willing agricultural property owners are compensated for placing a permanent easement on their agricultural property that limits future uses and ends future development potential. As a result, the agricultural land is preserved and the property owner receives compensation that can make its continued use for agriculture more viable. The PACE program is a component of the San Diego County General Plan’s Implementation Plan. The PACE program is intended to promote the preservation of agricultural land in the County and is a natural complement to the County’s Live Well San Diego vision to promote healthy communities, in part through conserving the County’s rural landscape. To ensure the success of the program in the marketplace, County staff also prepared a mitigation credit program as an expanded component of the PACE program. Under that component, easement lands acquired by the County under PACE can be used as off-site mitigation for agricultural impacts resulting from private development projects. Funds acquired through an applicant’s purchase of mitigation credits are rolled back into PACE for the future acquisition of easements. Since program implementation in 2011, the County has preserved 1,151 acres by securing agricultural conservation easements.