Ag Land Water Rates

[ Excerpt from SBN-P article of September 20, 2006 by Vladimir Kogan ]

City Council approves small water rate discount


A divided City Council voted Tuesday to offer a modest water discount for Santa Barbara agricultural users, despite calls from several vocal avocado growers who had long lobbied for a larger break.

In approving an agricultural rate of $1.46 per hundred cubic feet -- 10 cents less than the existing agricultural rate and far below the residential and commercial rates -- the council endorsed the recommendation of the city's Board of Water Commissioners...

The debate over the rates has proven unusually contentious, given that its outcome affects only 71 agricultural customers and that it amounts to less than $20,000 per year of the city water department's multimillion dollar budget. However, the plight of the growers, who have faced strong competition from Third World countries and from neighboring Goleta, which subsidizes its agricultural rates even more, has tapped into strong political opposition to more development in the city.

"I just don't want to see the city growers getting discouraged and giving up and that land getting developed," said Harriet Sharp, [an]... avocado grower...

Councilmen Das Williams and Brian Barnwell said the compromise did not go far enough to protect the city's avocado orchards, and both dissented from the City Council decision on Tuesday.

"We do a lot of things for the fringe elements in our community that need a little help, and ag has become a fringe element," said Mr. Barnwell, who called the adopted rates "mean-spirited."


(Map courtesy of Santa Barbara County)

Santa Barbara News-Press