Conaway Deal Pursued
Davis Enterprise - April 16, 2004
By Cory Golden

WOODLAND - Local officials on Thursday announced an effort to buy the 17,300-acre Conaway Ranch between Davis, Woodland and West Sacramento, to preserve its water, agricultural and habitat value.

The tentative agreement would form a joint powers agency between those three cities, UC Davis, Yolo County and the County Flood Control and Water Conservation District to pursue the purchase, said Mike McGowan, chairman of the Board of Supervisors. The city of Winters also could join, he said.

McGowan called it "a bold step to seek to preserve a major regional resource," and that he believed the group can raise the needed money without using city or county general funds. He noted that estimates have the population of the Sacramento region doubling by 2050. Pressure to develop farmland is intense.

"The opportunity to pick up 17,000 acres with incredibly rich water and mineral rights and agricultural opportunities and land-preservation opportunities - it's just the right thing to do," he said.

Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, D-Davis, pledged her support and that of state Sen. Mike Machado, D-Linden. She said forming the JPA would be a "smart, strategic move" demonstrating cooperation between officials.

Wolk compared placing the land in public hands akin to preserving Yosemite National Park or the Pacific Coast.

"Every once in a while, but rarely, we have an opportunity to do something that will make a true and extraordinary difference in the lives of our children and grandchildren. This is a legacy project," she said.

"Simply put, we want Conaway Ranch to be in public hands. The resources of the land, the water, the wildlife, the open space - well, they just aren't making land like this anymore, not just here in Yolo County but in the state."

PG&E Properties, a subsidiary of Pacific Gas and Electric Co., bought the land in 1990. It reportedly offered it for $68.5 million in 1996, then opted not to sell.

National Energy and Gas Transmission Properties, as the company is now called, is expected to put the property on the market again soon.

"What we're doing right now is considering the sale of Conaway Ranch," Sandra McDonough, vice president of NEGT Properties, said today. "We are in a process of designing how we would go forward with a sale."

McGowan said when city of Davis officials learned of that possibility, they contacted the city of Woodland, then, about a month ago, the Board of Supervisors.

Officials see the prospect of a sale both as an opportunity and a reason to worry.

"It raises some concern that perhaps these prospective buyers may be interested in selling the property rights, in this case probably the water rights, really for their own selfish or less than enlightened purpose or perhaps for speculation, to develop the land itself," McGowan said.

"We're hoping to acquire this property to protect it, to preserve it, to make sure we keep it in the family."

Officials would like to "maintain the status quo" on the land, he said. A number of local farmers lease about 15,900 acres of it, growing rice, tomatoes and alfalfa.

"If we acquired this tomorrow, we would undoubtedly would turn around and enter into longer-term farming agreements with all the people who are out there," McGowan said.

The property, about half of which is inside the Yolo Bypass and Cache Creek Settling Basin, contains an estimated 50,000 acre-feet of water rights - enough water, McGowan said, for 200,000 families a year.

The value of the land is being assessed by the county.

"We're confident (the landowners) will do the right thing Š, see the value in keeping this asset local and see the value of maintaining the status quo of this property, and will be negotiating with us," McGowan said.

He said cobbling together millions of dollars won't be a simple matter.

"A joint powers authority would explore various options, including short-term loans supported by incomes from the properties and potential support from grants, nonprofits, and state and federal funding," he said. "It is not anticipated - nor is it necessary, in my opinion - that funds for the acquisition of this property come from city or county general funds.

"It is our goal to do this without going too far into our own pockets to make this happen."

Put another way, said Woodland Mayor Matt Rexroad, "We couldn't afford to do this alone and we can't afford not to do it together."

Wolk said she believed the plan will receive public support, especially in light of the value of the property and that money can be found.

"The people of the state of California have passed incredible bonds to preserve land in the worst of times. We're purchasing land now, all over the state," she said. "This piece of property ranks among the top, in terms of its value, whether its water value, its environmental value, its habitat value, its agricultural value, its flood control capacity."

Wolk said that in 1996, when she was mayor of Davis, she attempted to help bring together many of the same parties to buy the land. That effort "never gelled."

Explained McGowan, "I don't think the real horrors of the impending development had become quite as apparent as they are today."

Davis Mayor Ruth Asmundson said Wednesday that she and other Davis City Council members were excited about the prospect of acquiring the land for residents and committed to making the JPA work.

John Meyer, vice chancellor for resource management and planning at UC Davis, said "a healthy Yolo County makes for a healthy and vibrant university."

"Another principle of ours," he said, "is that tough budget times are exactly not the time to abandon the future."#