The owners of a 220-acre property in the scenic Corral de Tierra area are facing opposition from neighbors over their designs for a small-scale commercial chicken farm.
Since acquiring the property at 18000 Corral Del Cielo Road in 2020, Ben and Tarin Christensen have drawn up plans to set up a farming operation, called Abalone Creek Ranch, on a roughly 30-acre portion near Corral Del Cielo. They want to use the pasture to graze nearly 500 chickens, as well as a smaller number of sheep, cattle and pigs; construct a 400-square-foot container-like structure to process the chickens on a monthly basis; and also build several barns and sheds spanning a combined 18,000 square feet.
But the residents of a 27-home subdivision across the road have taken exception to the Christensens’ plans – claiming that the farm will bring unwanted noise and blight the surrounding viewshed, and also strain the neighborhood’s roads and water supply. The residents have organized and raised objections before the local Toro Land Use Advisory Committee and the county’s Agricultural Advisory Committee, and hired Carmel attorney Jennifer Rosenthal to lead their fight.
Rosenthal says her clients are concerned about the scale of the proposed processing facility – citing how the Christensens originally planned to have around 700 chickens, but reduced that figure to just under the 500-bird threshold that would require a poultry farm permit. “Clearly their intent is to have a commercial chicken processing plant, but not go through the regulatory process because they’re going to have one less chicken,” she says.
But Tarin Christensen insists that her family is “more than willing to comply” with the rules, stressing that Abalone Creek Ranch will not be the “industrial”-type operation feared by neighbors. While the Christensens live in San Jose (Ben works as an engineer for Meta), Tarin says they purchased the property with the intention of creating a “sustainable family farm” that they could share with their children and eventually retire on.
“There’s no intention of ruining someone’s beautiful, idyllic landscape view,” she says, adding she’s been “surprised at the pushback” given how the land is already zoned for agricultural use.
Considering that zoning, as well as ag-friendly state laws like the Williamson Act and the “Right to Farm Act,” it’s unclear whether the organized community opposition will be enough to prevent or alter the Christensens’ plans. The local Toro LUAC already recommended against the project in July.
The county’s Ag Advisory Committee punted on such a vote on Aug. 24, when it was asked by planners at the county’s Department of Housing and Community Development to provide recommendations on conditions of approval. The committee is expected to revisit the project in the coming months following completion of an environmental review, while the final decision on the project will lay with the county’s Planning Commission.
(2) comments
G. Mitchel Kirk makes a viable point: Land use issues should not be decided by a small group of neighbors that want to limit farming or ranching operations on property zoned for agricultural use. Having lived in Alameda County and Santa Clara valley, I can see from sad experience what happens when developers/residents run rampant over the rights of agricultural land owners. I lived in a neighborhood in San Martin where residents were opposed to a pre-existing dairy farm. That farm was eventually closed, now a paved over mega mansion development. All we have to do is look at the housing sprawl that has consumed good, fertile agricultural land in both counties, and reflect on improper zoning which allowed good agricultural land to be unwisely destroyed.
Should Abalone Creek Ranch be allowed to develop? Yes!!! Of course they should be allowed to create a viable ranch business, generating the income necessary to remain in operation.
Do the neighbors across the road really want a housing development, with associated traffic, light pollution, excessive water use, pave over agriculture land? I would think not.
Does a ranch have to be limited by neighbors to the point that it is not feasible to maintain a profitable ranch operation? I should hope not.
One need only to look at the 580 corridor to see the results of ranches that could not remain profitable enough to stay in business. That corridor was ranch land until the 1960’s, with the exception of Santa Rita prison.
I favor a chicken ranch (think access to locally grown eggs, etc.) with other farm animals to the blighted sight of paved over Pastures of Heaven. Let Abalone Creek Ranch develop!
Same thing happened in Morgan Hill, a bunch of Karen's move in to a agricultural town. Now they want to ban the mushroom farms, the chicken ranches', the livestock ranches due to animal cruelty etc. God forbid someone actually use the property for agricultural. I hope Ben and Tarin win this one for all of us. Karen's telling us what we can and can not do with our property has to end. They all moved into the area, got it rezoned for their mega mansions now want to tell adjacent property owners you cant do that because we say so, and we have more money than a chicken rancher to out spend you on our attorney.
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