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ADOPT A RESOLUTION APPROVING A REQUEST FOR A FINAL CERTIFICATE OF CANCELLATION OF A WILLIAMSON ACT CONTRACT FOR A 43.7-ACRE PARCEL LOCATED AT 4849 CAROLYN WESTON BOULEVARD (APN 166-030-05)
recommended action
RECOMMENDATION
1. Find no further environmental review is required per California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines Section 15183 (consistency with the General Plan); and
2. Adopt a Resolution approving the Final Certificate of Cancellation of the Williamson Act Contract No. 69-01-1098 for a 43.7-acre parcel located at 4849 Carolyn Weston Boulevard (APN 166-030-05).
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Summary
On January 25, 2024, the Applicant, TTLA Stockton-Asano LLC, (hereafter the “Applicant”) received Planning Commission approval (via Resolution 2024-01-25-0501) of a Tentative Subdivision Map to subdivide a 43.7-acre parcel of land located at 4849 Carolyn Weston Boulevard (APNs 166-030-05) into 224 parcels, consisting of 211 parcels for single family residential homes and 13 parcels for common areas including park, open space, drainage basin, and a bike path (the “Project”). A condition of approval for said project is to initiate the cancellation of the existing Williamson Act (WA) Contract No. 69-01-1098 on the subject parcel.
On April 1, 2025, the City Council considered and approved the Certificate of Tentative Cancellation of the WA Contract on APN 166-030-05. For the final cancellation process to be completed, per Stockton Municipal Code (SMC) Section 16.236.030, the Council must now confirm that all conditions and contingencies including payment of penalty fees have been satisfied for issuance of a Final Certificate of Cancellation of the WA Contract.
The Applicant has satisfied all conditions, including payment of early cancellation penalty fees, and all necessary findings contained in the proposed Resolution can be made in the affirmative. Therefore, Staff recommends that City Council approve the Final Certificate of Cancellation of the WA Contract for the 43.7-acre parcel located at 4849 Carolyn Weston Boulevard (APN 166-030-05).
DISCUSSION
Background
The Williamson Act (officially, the California Land Conservation Act of 1965) is a California law that provides relief of property tax to owners of farmland and open-space land in exchange for a ten-year agreement that the land will not be developed or otherwise converted to another use (Government Code Section 51200 et seq). A new ten-year period is automatically started each year unless the property owner files a Notice of Nonrenewal with the State and City to end the automatic initiation of a new ten-year contract term and/or a Notice of Cancellation request to terminate the contract before the end of the ten-year period.
Early cancellation requires the City Council to approve a Certificate of Tentative Cancellation of a WA contract request to accept the appraised land value and allow the property owner to work with the California Department of Conservation and the San Joaquin County Assessor’s office to prepare a Final Certificate of Cancellation of a WA contract request for payment of any remaining taxes.
On July 13, 2022, the Applicant recorded a Notice of Nonrenewal and filed for Cancellation of Contract No. 69-01-1098 for the subject property in anticipation of developing the 43.7-acre property, which initiated the countdown of the 10-year term (Attachment A). Due to the lengthy process of determining the appropriate Cancellation Value and associated cancellation fee with the County Assessor’s Office, the subdivision entitlement described below was processed separately from the WA cancellation.
On January 25, 2024, the Applicant received approval of a tentative subdivision map by the Stockton Planning Commission to subdivide and develop a 43.7-acre property at 4849 Carolyn Weston Boulevard. The project site is zoned Residential, Low-Density and proposes 211 single-family homes within the Weston Ranch community area (P21-0999), see location and context map (Attachment B). As evidenced in the location map, this property did not develop when the Weston Ranch community area was developed and is considered an infill project, as streets and utilities are currently stubbed to extend into the site with anticipation of eventual development.
Stockton Municipal Code (SMC) Section 16.236.030 establishes the procedure for tentative and final cancellation of Willimson Act contracts . The first step is the tentative cancellation of the WA contract that is considered during a public hearing. The Certificate of Tentative Cancellation was approved by the City Council on April 1, 2025, allowing the Applicant to proceed with paying the early cancellation penalty fees based on the appraised property value to the San Joaquin County Assessor (Attachment C). The second step in the WA cancellation process requires the City Council to confirm that the penalty fees have been paid and issue a Final Certificate of Cancellation.
Present Situation
On January 22, 2025, the San Joaquin County Assessor’s Office determined the cancellation value and associated cancellation fee to be approximately $819,482 (Attachment D). The Assessor’s determination allowed the applicant to then proceed with the WA cancellation process with the City.
The proposed Project site includes an existing single-family home, accessory dwelling unit, and farming structures to service the row crops onsite. The site is surrounded to the north, east, and south by existing single-family homes (Weston Ranch) and the San Joaquin River to the west. The site is directly south of George Y. Komure Elementary School. The proposed Project site is one of the few remaining undeveloped properties within the Weston Ranch community.
STAFF ANALYSIS
Having received a Certificate of Tentative Cancellation of the WA Contract in 2025, on April 9, 2026, the Applicant paid the early cancellation fee of $819,481.75 to the County Assessor’s Office. (Attachment E). The recommended action allows the Applicant to complete the process and terminate their WA Contract.
Environmental Clearance
The proposed cancellation request does not require additional environmental review per the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines Section 15183, because it is consistent with the development impacts established by a General Plan Environmental Impact Report (“EIR”), and no new significant effects, substantially more severe impacts, or changed circumstances have been identified specific to the cancellation. The General Plan EIR was prepared and certified by the City Council as part of the Envision Stockton 2040 General Plan process (SCH# 2017052062). The 2040 General Plan envisions the proposed Project site and surrounding areas to include single-family residential use.
The General Plan EIR anticipated cancellation of the WA contract at the Project site among other locations in the City. As shown in General Plan EIR Figure 4.2-4, the proposed Project site was expected to have its WA contract canceled to convert the land from agricultural to residential uses consistent with the existing Low-Density Residential (LDR) General Plan designation (Attachment F). The proposed Project site was also included in the Housing Element for potential housing development toward meeting the City’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA). The WA cancellation request is consistent with the General Plan EIR, no new significant effects, substantially more severe impacts, or changed circumstances have been identified beyond those analyzed in the Envision Stockton 2040 General Plan EIR.
Final Certificate of Cancellation of Williamson Act Contract
Staff recommends that Council approve the proposed Final Certificate of Cancellation of WA Contract. Removal of the WA contract will allow site development consistent with the General Plan and Housing Element. Further, the request for Final Certificate of Cancellation of the Williamson Act contract for the 43.7-acre parcel located at 4849 Carolyn Weston Boulevard (APN 166-030-05) is consistent with the General Plan and Zoning designation for the proposed Project site.
As outlined in the proposed Resolution, all necessary findings can be made to support approval of a Final Certificate of Cancellation of the WA Contract (Exhibit 1 to the Resolution). Upon approval of the Cancellation, the applicant will be able to complete the cancellation process as outlined earlier in this report and proceed with housing development.
FINANCIAL SUMMARY
All required application fees were paid to cover staff time for processing the requested action. The requested cancelation itself has no direct fiscal impact associated with the City processing beyond recovered staff costs.
Future development may generate both additional revenues and municipal service demands.
Attachment A - Notice of Non-renewal Submittal to State
Attachment B - Location and Context Map
Attachment C - Certificate of Tentative Cancellation of WA Contract
Attachment D - San Joaquin County Assessor’s Office Value Review Notification
Attachment E - Receipt of Payment of Early Cancellation Fee
Attachment F - General Plan Land Use and Farmland Conversion Maps