SACRAMENTO -- The
pace of urbanization sped up in
Sacramento County from 1998-2000, with
6,430 acres of land -- much of it
farmland -- reclassified as being in
urban uses, according to a map released
today by the California Department of
Conservation. The map is designed to
help local governments evaluate land-use
The Farmland Mapping
and Monitoring Program (FMMP), part of
DOC's Division of Land Resource
Protection, maps 44.1 million acres of
California's public and private land to
produce a major study every two years.
In Sacramento County,
a net total of 3,462 acres of farmland
-- including 1,340 acres of prime
farmland, the most productive type --
were reclassified as urban land by the
FMMP. Additionally, 1,786 acres of
grazing land and 1,182 acres of land
classified as "other" -- a category that
includes wetlands, low-density "ranchettes"
and brush or timberlands unsuitable for
grazing -- were urbanized.
Since the FMMP first
began mapping Sacramento County in 1988,
25,875 acres have been urbanized. During
the 1996-98 mapping cycle, the total was
3,812 acres, including 1,317 acres of
Looking ahead, the
county reports that 3,415 acres --
including 825 acres of farmland -- are
committed to non-agricultural use.
Often, this is land earmarked for
development. In some cases
infrastructure development, such as
sewer installation, may be underway.
Of the 636,083 acres
mapped in Sacramento County, 37 percent
was farmland, 26 percent grazing land,
25 percent urban and 10 percent "other"
land. The remainder is classified as
The map has been sent
to Sacramento County planning officials,
and interested parties such as the
county Farm Bureau, Local Agency
Formation Commission, planning
consultants and area resource
conservation districts have received
"We do this mapping
to help counties plan and prepare for
their expected growth in the coming
years," explained Department of
Conservation Director Darryl Young.
"This information is a tool that can
help Sacramento County and other local
governments balance the needs of a
growing population with those of the
agricultural land will continue to face
development pressure in the foreseeable
future. The California Department of
Finance projects that the county's
population will grow from its current
1.2 million to 1.7 million by 2020.
According to the
California Department of Food and
Agriculture, the gross value of
Sacramento County's agricultural
production was more than $285 million in
2000, ranking it 26th among the state's
examples of agricultural land being
urbanized in Sacramento County:
Some of the new
housing developments in the Natomas
area (acreage figures are approximate)
include Natomas Park (700 acres),
Tuscano Apartments (50 acres), Gateway
West (150 acres), Riverbend (100
acres), and Riverwalk (100 acres). The
Two Rivers Elementary School (30
acres) was also added.
New developments in
Elk Grove included East Park (80
acres), Clarke Farms (50 acres),
Silver Meadows (50 acres), Silver
Legends (50 acres), and the Citrus
Grove Apartments (50 acres). The Elk
Grove Automall (55 acres) and a
Walgreens (25 acres) also were added.
The latest statewide
study by the FMMP, Farmland Conversion
Report 1996-98, was released last fall.
About 70,000 acres were urbanized
throughout the state; more than 43,000
acres of the new urban land, an area
about the size of the city of Modesto,
were developed on agricultural land.