This polygon shapefile depicts Williamson Act Parcels with an ongoing contract within the unincorporated areas of the County of Santa Clara, California. The California Land Conservation Act, better known as the Williamson Act, has been the California’s agricultural land protection program since its enactment in1965. The Williamson Act preserves agricultural and open space lands through property tax incentives and voluntary restrictive use contracts. Private landowners voluntarily restrict their land to agricultural and compatible open space uses under minimum ten year rolling term contracts with local governments. In return, restricted parcels are assessed for property tax purposes at a rate consistent with their actual use, rather than potential market value. The purpose of the Williamson Act is to preserve the County’s prime soils and intensive high value agricultural operations, and to discourage premature and unnecessary conversion of agricultural land to urban use. This layer is part of a collection of GIS data for Santa Clara County, California. The Santa Clara County Planning Office is part of the Department of Planning and Development. Their primary function is to plan and regulate land use and development within the unincorporated portions of Santa Clara County. Other responsibilities include policy analysis, GIS services, research and technical assistance relating to land use, housing, environmental protection, historic preservation and demographics. The Geographic Information Services Department has taken on all those activities related to GIS data and GIS process and procedures that cross organizational boundaries. Santa Clara County encompasses 15 cities and approximately 1.7 million people. This coverage can be used for basic applications such as viewing, querying, and map output production, or to provide a basemap to support graphical overlays and analyses of geospatial data. Santa Clara County, California. Planning Office. (2015). Contracted Williamson Act Parcels: Santa Clara County, California, 2015. Santa Clara County, Calif. Planning Office. Available at: http://purl.stanford.edu/qr197tf8065. There are no Use Constraints. The user must be familiar with GIS software and web maps to use these data. No support on the use of software or webmaps is provided. All information provided herein by the Santa Clara County Department of Planning and Development (SCCDPD) is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute a legal contract between the SCCDPD and any person or entity. Information on the website is subject to change without prior notice. Although every reasonable effort is made to present current and accurate information, the SCCDPD makes no guarantees of any kind.The SCCDPD, its employees, officers, content providers, affiliates or other representatives are not liable for damages of any kind (including, without limitation, lost profits, direct, indirect, compensatory, consequential, exemplary, special, incidental, or punitive damages) arising out of your useof, your inability to use, or the performance of this website or the content whether or not we have been advised of the possibility of such damages. This layer is presented in the WGS84 coordinate system for web display purposes. Downloadable data are provided in native coordinate system or projection.
