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Greenbelt Alliance In the News
May 11, 2007
Land trust vows
to continue
John VanLandingham
Brentwood Agricultural Land Trust (BALT), is neither broken nor bowed in
the wake of the City Council’s decision not to fund it after June 30,
according to its chief administrator.
BALT Executive Director Kathryn Lyddan this week announced that its board had
expanded from seven to 12 members, none of whom are appointed by or represent
the city of Brentwood.
Joining the expanded board are former county supervisor Tom Powers, currently
chairman of the county Agricultural Advisory Task Force and chairman of the Contra
Costa Wine and Grape & Olive Growers Association, and John Chapman,
former trustee of the East Bay Community Foundation and currently a member of
the Local
Advisory Committee of the Local Initiative Support Corporation and the Greenbelt
Alliance board. Lyddan stated this week in an e-mail press release that “The
board has also invited two other important members of the agricultural community
to join it – I hope that I’ll be able to confirm their membership
(soon).” Lyddan called the city’s decision to withdraw funding “distressing,” but
said it will be business as usual come July 1 – and no more city money.
During a telephone interview, Lyddan, a Moraga resident and executive director
of BALT since it was founded in 2002 with the city’s help, said the organization
has many successful Bay Area mentors to emulate.
She said the land trust has proven it can get grants. It got one from the Columbia
Foundation and another from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a combined
$115,000.
After underwriting BALT’s administrative costs for nearly five years, Brentwood
City Council members in April decided to not renew the current funding, which
runs through June 30. Since 2002, Brentwood has spent about $600,000 on administrative
costs. Lyddan employs a staff of one.
Councilman Erick Stonebarger said in a telephone interview this week that he
supported the city’s move to cut off the trust’s funding.
“I recommended to discontinue funding because the acquisition of easements
hasn’t been very successful. We didn’t think that continuing funding
was in the best interest of those funds. We would like to use it for different
things, the last of which is administration. We want to get the best bang for
our buck for the agricultural industry out there and we don’t think we
were,” said Stonebarger, a member of a Brentwood farming family.
He also said that the ordinance creating the land trust and the agricultural
land preservation program needs to be rewritten to make it more effective. “That
will take more time.”
The land trust evolved out of an agricultural preservation program the city developed
in early 2002. The idea was that an independent land trust would negotiate with
farmers to put their lands in conservation easements, allowing them to farm and
avoid pressure to sell to developers.
Lyddan said on Monday that the organization has negotiated three such easements
and is nearing completion of two more.
Disappointed by the city’s action, Lyddan, a former attorney, said the
land trust will continue to apply for grants, hold fundraisers and work on other
funding sources.
“We won’t quit,” she said. “There’s still an important
job to be done that many people feel passionately about. The BALT board will
be expanding so we can draw in larger segments of the community.”
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