‘Dairylands’ Development Delayed

SAN BERNARDINO — San Bernardino County supervisors voted Monday to keep the 13,600-acre “dairylands” southeast of Chino as an agricultural preserve for at least 10 years, rejecting requests from some landowners to open it up to residential or commercial development.

The 4-0 vote to maintain the preserve ends, at least for the time being, six years of controversy in the preserve, which contains about 200 dairies and about 200,000 cows and supplies most of Southern California’s milk.

The preserve designation blocks residential and commercial development on the land, whose development potential is steadily increasing as the Inland Empire urban area expands westward and Los Angeles grows eastward. In return, preserve landowners pay substantially lower property taxes.

Development advocates argued that dairy farming is no longer profitable and that 80% of the property owners within the preserve had asked to break it up. Those for the preserve responded that efficient dairy farming is still profitable and that there is a need to preserve a greenbelt of open space in the rapidly growing area.