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Rocks Ranch property owner Ben Bingaman has delivered a letter to the San Benito County Board of Supervisors and county counsel requesting that the county rezone four nodes from commercial regional to commercial thoroughfare. The letter argues that Measure A, the citizens’ initiative on the Nov. 5 ballot, would otherwise devalue the property and constitute a taking.
These “nodes” were designated by county planners and the San Benito County Board of Supervisors, following a long public process, as appropriate locations for commercial development.
According to the letter sent on Sept. 10, the proposed measure includes language that allows supervisors to re-designate lands other than agriculture, rural, or rangeland without requiring a popular vote.
The letter also argues that the county has an obligation to adopt zoning consistent with the General Plan.
“Whether the initiative passes or not, the county must zone property for commercial use that is currently designated by the General Plan as commercial node,” the letter states.
State law requires counties and cities to adopt a General Plan, which serves as the blueprint for future growth. San Benito County’s 2035 General Plan was adopted in 2015.
Bingaman contends that Measure A, if passed, would be an unconstitutional regulatory “taking” of his property without just compensation. According to the research firm Westlaw, a taking occurs when a governmental body “deprives a property owner of the ownership, control, or all economic benefit from a property.” If this happens, Bingaman says, and property owners such as himself can’t develop their properties for commercial use, the county would have to pay “millions of dollars.”
“What I wanted them to understand is the very real liabilities the county and their constituents may be taking on,” Bingaman told BenitoLink.
Attorney Zachary Walton, who sent the letter on behalf of Bingaman, told BenitoLink the county would be liable to pay property owners the difference between their properties’ value as commercially viable land, versus its value as land otherwise zoned.
“If the initiative passes and prevents the commercial development of the sites,” he said, “then we’re saying that’s a regulatory taking that requires just compensation.”
Measure A addresses three widely differing but important elements. If passed it would impact several county nodes, as well as all rural areas of the county, and the John Smith Landfill.
Measure A seeks to require voter approval to rezone rural, agricultural and range lands. It also seeks to remove the four commercial node designations along Hwy 101 from the General Plan. The current process leaves it up to the Planning Commission, a body appointed by the elected Board of Supervisors, to approve or deny such actions. The Board of Supervisors have the ultimate authority if the Planning Commission’s decisions are challenged.
Walton said the county does not need an application from the property owner to initiate the rezoning process.
The four ‘nodes’
Rocks Ranch is one of four areas along Hwy 101 designated as commercial nodes in the Plan. The other three areas are known as Livestock 101, Hwy 129/Searle Rd, and Betabel Rd.
The county has considered commercial applications for the Betabel Road and Hwy 129/Searle Road nodes. Livestock 101 already includes a commercial business, 101 Trailer Sales. The Betabel project’s environmental study is in litigation.
The current land use designations, which have not yet been rezoned to correspond with the General Plan’s designations, are:
- Rocks Ranch: agricultural rangeland and agricultural productive (2,613 acres of the ranch was acquired by the Land Trust of Santa Cruz for habitat preservation and management).
- Betabel Road: agriculture rangeland; commercial thoroughfare
- Searle Road/Hwy 129: commercial thoroughfare
- Livestock 101: neighborhood commercial
These projects have been opposed by activist group Preserve San Benito County, formerly known as Protect Our Rural Community (PORC), and the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, citing lack of water, loss of open land, and potential for increased traffic. The Amah Mutsun say the areas are considered sacred by indigenous people.
In a previous measure that did not pass, PORC opposed all commercial nodes identified by the county.
Property owners, along with the supervisors who were in office when the environmental study was approved in 2022, hold that the commercial developments would take advantage of traffic already using Hwy 101, and would bring much needed tax revenue and jobs to the county.
The county public information officer or planning director have not immediately responded to BenitoLink’s request for comment.
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