Critical fight over Conaway

By Elisabeth Sherwin/Enterprise staff writer

WOODLAND - About 125 people came out Tuesday night when the Conaway Preservation Group, owners of the property northeast of Davis, held a town hall meeting to essentially celebrate private ownership.

The 17,300-acre ranch east of Davis and Woodland and west of the Sacramento River is the subject of a lawsuit initiated by Yolo County to force the owners to sell. The matter will be heard Aug. 23 in Yolo County Superior Court.

"We don't want to sell. That's the long and short of it," said Tovey Giezentanner, spokesman for the Conaway Preservation Group LLC, and the emcee for what was billed as a meeting on how best to preserve the Conaway Ranch.

"We think that when people hear our story they believe us and support private ownership," Giezentanner said. "I hope the county will allow us to keep our stewardship."

Steve Gidaro, a Sacramento developer, and the Conaway Preservation Group purchased the land in mid-December from the National Energy and Gas Transmission Inc., formerly known as PG&E Properties. The purchase price is believed to be about $60 million. The site

includes farmland and 50,000 acre-feet of water rights.

This morning, Yolo County Supervisor Mike McGowan described the fight over the future of the ranch as a fight for the future of county. He scoffed at the group's public relations attempts.

"We haven't worked this hard and this long to let dirt merchants and land speculators come in and buy Yolo County," McGowan said. "This is ground zero over who will control Yolo County."

The meeting was held at the Yolo County Farm Bureau on Kentucky Avenue. The Farm Bureau opposes the county's attempt to condemn the ranch through eminent domain.

Folks might have been lured out for a free dinner - about 125 tri-tip sandwiches were served - but many remained in the packed room for the rest of the evening.

And it quickly became clear that the Conaway Preservation Group employees who spoke, including wildlife manager Mike Hall and operations manager Regina Cherovsky, were largely preaching to the choir.

When Giezentanner asked the crowd for a show of hands on how many approved of the county's attempt to buy the ranch through eminent domain, only a few people put a hand up. When he asked how many disapproved of the county's efforts, lots of hands went up.

But people had questions, too. The group's land use attorney, George Phillips, answered most of the questions after a virtual tour/slide show of the property by Hall and Cherovsky.

Phillips said the owners' primary goal for the ranch is the maintenance of private ownership while allowing for easements and other mechanisms to be placed on the ranch. The easements will ensure long-term certainty with respect to preserving farmland, wildlife habitat, flood management, open space and local water supply.

The Conaway Preservation Group has retained a legal group that specializes in conservation strategies as the primary focus for return on investment.

This means the ranch could become, in part, a land mitigation bank. If a developer in Natomas, for instance, wanted to build homes, he would have the responsibility to mitigate the loss of land. He could buy conservation easements on the ranch.

Since there is a finite amount of land, it will become increasingly expensive to satisfy the mitigation requirement. This could make a great deal of money for the ranch owners and also would keep the land in agriculture or habitat.

Attorney Phillips said he has worked for one of the CPG owners, Gidaro, for nearly 20 years. He said Gidaro and John Reynen love the ranch property and put together a group of buyers to form CPG.

"The sale of conservation easements will give them a return on their investment," Phillips said.

Phillips also said the group is not planning to sell water out of county.

"That is absolutely not an interest of this ownership group," he said.

Phillips lamented the fact that the county doesn't believe the Conaway Preservation Group will be a good steward of the ranch.

"They have a lack of confidence in the current ownership," he said.

The county insists it wants to own the ranch to preserve status quo, which is the same reason the group gives for wanting to keep the ranch.

In answer to a question about what the Conaway Ranch would look like in 20 years, Phillips said he wanted to have Hall and Cherovsky in place managing wildlife and farming operations.

He added that development of the ranch land would be difficult since the county already has zoned the land for agriculture.

"The county has the authority to deny zoning changes," Phillips said. He also said that two-thirds of the land in protected by the Williamson Act.

Dave Sanders of the Woodland Planning Commission tried to pin Phillips down.

"Can you give us an unambiguous commitment that there will be no sale of water rights, no housing development?" he asked.

"I can't answer that," said Phillips, who said it was difficult to make a long-term commitment.

"Yeah, but I'm not trying to sell anything," Sanders said.

"I'm not either," Phillips replied.

But the item being offered for sale was clearly public opinion.

"The numbers don't quite go our way in Davis," said Giezentanner, when someone asked if he would host a town hall meeting there.

This morning, Giezentanner said the Conaway Preservation Group would hold a town hall meeting and slide show in Davis at an unspecified future date.

At the conclusion of Tuesday night's presentation and question-and-answer session, many people were left thinking about the comments of an 81-year-old farmer from Madison.

"Is it possible there will be housing on that land?" Dozier Bei asked. Then he answered his own question: "It's just hard to believe that that's not the intention."

- Reach Elisabeth Sherwin at gizmo@dcn.org

Wednesday, June 29, 2005