July 22, 2014 – Route 1 Farms owner Jeff Larkey has been holding a series of urgent meetings with neighbors and friends of the farm in hopes of finding a buyer willing to save his prime cropland on Ocean St. Extension at the outskirts of Santa Cruz.
Two idyllic parcels he’s farmed for 30 years along the southern bank of the San Lorenzo River are set to go on sale next week—one six acres and the other 3.25 acres.
“It’s one of those unique places with perfect climate and perfect soil, along a riparian corridor, where you can grow anything,” says Larkey, whose year-to-year lease is up on December 31.
“Small farms on the fringes of urban areas are super important to our local food system,” he adds, “and they are endangered because of high property values in our area.”
The two parcels are expected to fetch a steep price and even though it’s zoned for commercial agriculture, Larkey wants to find the right buyer who is committed to preserving it as farmland in perpetuity through a conservation easement.
Buying the property himself is not an option. “I’ve never had that much money at one time,” the farmer said.
Larkey also farms 40 acres at Waddell Creek on the north coast and an additional five acres on Ocean St. Extension, which is not going up for sale. But he says the six-acre property is especially important to the farm’s survival because that’s where his well is located.
He’s looking into fundraising to purchase a conservation easement from whoever steps up to buy the property, which could possibly be held and monitored by the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County.
Land Trust Director of Conservation Bryan Largay says they’ve been providing encouragement and advice to Larkey, but are not in a position to buy the property themselves. “Our farmland protection program is focused on protecting as much acreage as possible and we anticipate that (Ocean St. Extension) property will be very costly,” Largay said.
“There’s a lot to be said for having a farm on the edge of town, but we could protect 10 times as much land in the Pajaro Valley for the same amount of money,” he added.
A conservation easement compensates a land owner in exchange for giving up development rights. The Land Trust has already protected more than 1,000 acres of farmland in the Pajaro Valley in this way. Funding for the easements usually comes from state grants and private donors.
Route One’s predicament is symptomatic of the pressures that urbanization and the high cost of land have put on small and medium-sized farms throughout our area over the past 50 years. Separated from the SF Bay Area by treacherous Highway 17, Santa Cruz County has managed to resist development better than other places and sentiment for preserving the farms runs high.
But Larkey says things are moving really fast and he’s trying to rally supporters to come up with a solution that allows him to continue farming the soil he’s been tilling and nurturing for the past three decades.
“It’s not just a piece of land. It’s the combination of alluvial soil, climate, water resources and the surrounding community which all contribute to making it special. I know that that specialness has inspired others to go and do the same things in other places,” he wrote in a heart-wrenching email to supporters.
“Unlike how most of the food that is grown in the Salinas and Pajaro Valleys right now, more than half of what I grow is sold locally. If we are going to protect ourselves from other external sources like climate change along with the ongoing financial pressures, then more and more, it’s important to conserve these kinds of places that act as buffers, as well as being highly productive,” Larkey added. We wish him the best of luck.
About the author
Deborah Luhrman is publisher and editor of Edible Monterey Bay. A lifelong journalist, she has reported from around the globe, but now prefers covering our flourishing local food scene and growing her own vegetables in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
