Supervisors Approve 3,000-Acre Timber Rezoning Near Bridgeville Amid Questions Over Tax Breaks

The costs and benefits of rezoning properties into timber production were explored as Humboldt County’s Board of Supervisors changed the zoning of a 3,000-acre Bridgeville area property.

At their May 13 meeting, supervisors approved rezoning two-thirds of the Buck Mountain Ranch near Bridgeville from agricultural zoning to Timber Production Zone (TPZ).

County Planner Andrew Whitney described the rezone as “a pretty standard” action and the applicant, Cottrell Ranch LLC, has filed several timber harvest plans over the last 20 years.

But the rezone drew some discussion among supervisors, with Supervisor Mike Wilson questioning financial implications.

TPZ property owners get tax breaks in exchange for keeping their lands in timber production. Answering questions from Wilson, Whitney said the county will lose about $12,000 a year in property tax revenue with the rezone, although some of it will be recouped through timber harvest taxes.

“I just want to caution us in our enthusiasm for these changes,” Wilson said. “I don’t really see any net benefit to the county, necessarily, other than a landowner of a very large holding getting a tax break.”

Discussing it with Planning Director John Ford, Wilson added, “Maybe you’ve got another viewpoint on that, and I’m happy to hear it.”

Saying “you’re raising a good policy discussion,” Ford said “traditionally” the state and the county have been willing to provide the tax incentives for preserving timber production and supporting “a very important industry within Humboldt County.”

Wilson noted that the county’s General Plan allows residential development on TPZ parcels and protection of timber production is “not quite same” in Humboldt as when state TPZ laws were created.

But Ford said viable timber production still needs to be proven and if properties are subdivided parcel sizes can’t go below 160 acres.

Board Chair Michelle Bushnell vouched for TPZ zoning as a way to keep ranchland properties intact.

“When you don’t have a tax break like this, oftentimes, generationally down the road, folks can’t keep their lands and so they end up selling it,” she said, adding that if residences are built, properties are reappraised and “we would see taxation from that.”

She said the Cottrell family has “been there for many, many years and they have logged on this land for years and ran cattle on this land for years. They have put money back into Humboldt County time and time again.”

Supervisor Steve Madrone has long been an advocate of land conservation through providing incentives. He described TPZ zoning as one of the ways to do it and said preventing land conversion saves the county money.

Splitting up large land tracts leads to “more expenses on the roads, from traffic, more expenses for all our public services, with the parcelization that can occur,” he continued. “And there are a lot of negatives that can come from that in terms of our budget, if you add up the whole budget, not just looking at the tax part of it, but the cost of services and everything else. So this is why this type of tax incentive was created several decades ago.”

Similar tax breaks are available for agricultural operations under the Williamson Act program but Madrone said the Cottrell ranch has only “small pockets of ag land within what is mostly timberland so it probably doesn’t quite qualify for Williamson.”

Another change with rezoning from ag to TPZ is that with TPZ, permits for new cannabis farming are not allowed.

Supervisors unanimously approved the zoning change.