Appellate Court Finds that Property Owners are Bound by Previous Property Owners’ Williamson Act Contract and Revisions to the Williamson Act Guidelines

Relying on the fact that the 1978 Guidelines expressly rescinded earlier Williamson Act guidelines, the court found that the Legislature intended the Guidelines to apply to both future and existing Williamson Act contracts. The court further reasoned that application of the Guidelines to existing contracts was not a “retroactive application,” since it would only affect prospective divisions of Williamson Act land. The court next determined that the 1978 Guidelines had been incorporated into the contract for the McKee property upon the annual renewal of the contract. In County of Marin v. Assessment Appeals Bd. (1976) 64 Cal.App.3d 319, the court had found that because a Williamson Act contract was renewed by the parties each year, laws enacted after the original contract date could be considered when analyzing the agreement. Applying the same principle to McKee, the court noted that neither party had ever given notice of nonrenewal, and that therefore, the contract had automatically renewed each year. By choosing not to give notice of nonrenewal, the court found that the landowner gains both the benefits and the burdens of a new ten-year contract. Here, the court found that by not giving notice of nonrenewal, the 1978 Guidelines were incorporated into the contract in 1979 (and every year thereafter) when the contract automatically renewed. Therefore, the court held that the McKees had breached the contract by transferring parcels smaller than 600 acres.