Getting Real With Rural (Butte County)

Rural County Brochure Page 1 (600 kb) | Page 2 (2.4 meg PDF - can print 11 x 17")

Rural Homepage | Section I | Section II | Section III | Section IV | Section V | Section VI

I. Neighboring Resource-Based Land Uses (Agriculture, Logging and Mining)

SECTION I
Butte County has a productive resource-based economy and this means that hard working industrial and natural resource operations may be near the rural resident.

Agriculture is the number one industry in Butte County, with a total production of almost $440 million in 2005. While colorful spring orchards and lush summer rice fields make for beautiful landscapes, farming practices generate a number of impacts:
  • Noise from planting and harvest, crop dusting, well motors, processing facilities
  • Odors from farm animals, organic matter, fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides
  • Smoke from burning used to clear fields of debris and irrigation ditches of weeds
  • Congestion from farm-related traffic on rural roads

Butte County seeks to preserve and enhance its agricultural base through various policies enacted through its General Plan and Chapter 35 of the Zoning Code. Many rural properties are under Williamson Act contracts by which property owners agree to preserve agricultural lands in exchange for a break in property taxes. The goal is to discourage conversion of farmland to urban uses. Williamson Act contracts limit an owner's ability to use, subdivide or separately sell any land subject to the contract, and require lands to be under active production (with some allowance for fallowing.) Currently, 1,440 properties covering 220,000 acres are in the program.

Parcels adjacent to Williamson Act lands and properties designated as Orchard and Field Crops and Grazing and Open Land by the Butte County General Plan may also require a residential exclusion buffer to separate dwellings from spray drift.

Parcels zoned for agriculture have certain specific use restrictions and, unlike most zones, are not allowed to have second dwelling units. Those building homes next to land zoned for agriculture must sign a form acknowledging the presence of standard farming practices next door.

Farming is not the County's only resource-based land use. While the heyday for mining and logging may be past, they still remain vital economic activities (there are 22 currently active mining sites in the County.) The County and State regulate both through various permitting processes, but there can be unavoidable noise, dust and traffic impacts upon neighboring properties.