June 29, 2026
Dear Editor,
Of Calaveras County’s 663,478 acres, 72 percent are categorized as important farmland or grazing land by the California Farmland Mapping and Monitoring Program. Our county is primarily open space. Two of the county’s major economic drivers, agriculture and tourism, are a source and a beneficiary, respectively, of open space.
It would seem logical for the Board of Supervisors (BOS) to make the update and implementation of the 2019 Open Space Plan a priority. Sadly, they have not. State legislation mandated the Open Space Plan be updated by January 1, 2026. It was not. It’s time for our local elected representatives to seriously consider the economic and environmental value of open space and plan accordingly.
According to the American Farmland Trust’s Information Center, which was developed in partnership with the USDA, “Cost of Community Services (COCS) studies evaluate working and open lands on equal ground with residential, commercial and industrial land uses… to help local officials and citizens make informed land use and policy decisions.”
You guessed it, in nearly every one of the 261 communities studied, “farmland has generated a fiscal surplus to help offset the shortfall created by residential demand for public services,” because cows don’t call 911.
Our General Plan Land Use Element estimates that a 50 per cent buildout of existing parcels would yield approximately 20,300 new residential units. “At the current census rate of 2.41 persons per household, this could accommodate almost 49,000 new residents.” In 2019, the population of the unincorporated county was projected to increase by a mere 2,438 souls by 2040.
There is an overabundance of existing residential parcels, yet the Land Use Element provides “ample opportunity for additional rural residential development.” One can only ask, “Why?” Given that residential development in community centers “is estimated at 20% of maximum potential,” the BOS should be focused on affordable residential infill development within community plan boundaries.
We should be protecting open space not only as an economic driver but also for the ways in which it sustains us with food, fuelwood, watersheds, carbon sequestration, wildlife, and beauty. As the saying goes, “God almighty isn’t making any more land, but he’s making babies every morning.”
Muriel Zeller, Calaveras Planning Coalition
Note: This letter appeared in the Calaveras Enterprise and the Valley Springs News the first week in July.