republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20212022/sb-574.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Agricultural preserves: Williamson Act."
description: "The California Land Conservation Act of 1965, otherwise known as the Williamson Act, authorizes a city or county to contract with a landowner to limit the use of agricultural land located in an agricultural preserve designated by the city or county, whereby the landowner agrees to continue using the property for that purpose, and the city or county agrees to value the land accordingly for purposes of property taxation, as specified. Existing law authorizes the cancellation of a Williamson Act contract under certain circumstances, as provided. Under the act, the board of supervisors or city council may grant tentative approval for a cancellation by petition of a landowner as to all or any part of land subject to a contract, as specified."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20212022"
identifier: "SB 574"
citation: "California SB 574 (20212022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Agricultural preserves: Williamson Act."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Laird"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 24
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2021-02-18"
last_action: "2021-10-07"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/a8261096-7b1e-43e0-a144-1ea088d38b90"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB574"
source_hash: "bf26fd8b4002e9ff85851be91e4c33ddd4090a82719d8f6022d0175a39fa99b1"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California SB 574 (20212022) — Agricultural preserves: Williamson Act.

The California Land Conservation Act of 1965, otherwise known as the Williamson Act, authorizes a city or county to contract with a landowner to limit the use of agricultural land located in an agricultural preserve designated by the city or county, whereby the landowner agrees to continue using the property for that purpose, and the city or county agrees to value the land accordingly for purposes of property taxation, as specified. Existing law authorizes the cancellation of a Williamson Act contract under certain circumstances, as provided. Under the act, the board of supervisors or city council may grant tentative approval for a cancellation by petition of a landowner as to all or any part of land subject to a contract, as specified.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/18/21 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB574&version=20210SB57499INT)
2. **03/04/21 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB574&version=20210SB57498AMD)
3. **10/07/21 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB574&version=20210SB57496CHP)
4. **SB574** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB574)
5. **08/20/21 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB574&version=20210SB57497ENR)

## Votes

- SB 574 Laird Consent Calendar Second Day — **73–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **13–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **8–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Local Government] with recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **11–0** (pass) · lower
- Consent Calendar SB574 — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **5–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Laird — primary (person)
- Aguiar-Curry — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2021-02-18** Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print. `introduction, reading-1`
- **2021-02-19** From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 21.
- **2021-02-22** Art. IV. Sec. 8(a) of the Constitution dispensed with.
- **2021-02-22** (Ayes 32. Noes 4.)
- **2021-02-22** Joint Rule 55 suspended. (Ayes 32. Noes 4. Page 272.)
- **2021-03-03** Referred to Com. on GOV. & F. `referral-committee`
- **2021-03-04** From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on GOV. & F. `amendment-passage, committee-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2021-03-05** Set for hearing March 11.
- **2021-03-11** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR with recommendation: To consent calendar. (Ayes 5. Noes 0. Page 480.) (March 11). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2021-03-16** Set for hearing March 22.
- **2021-03-22** From committee: Be ordered to second reading pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8 and ordered to consent calendar. `committee-passage, reading-2`
- **2021-03-23** Read second time. Ordered to consent calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-03-25** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 38. Noes 0. Page 612.) Ordered to the Assembly. `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-03-25** In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk. `reading-1`
- **2021-05-13** Referred to Coms. on AGRI. and L. GOV. `referral-committee`
- **2021-06-16** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on L. GOV. with recommendation: To consent calendar. (Ayes 11. Noes 0.) (June 16). Re-referred to Com. on L. GOV. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2021-06-24** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To consent calendar. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (June 23). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2021-07-14** From committee: Do pass. Ordered to consent calendar. (Ayes 13. Noes 0.) (July 14). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-07-15** Read second time. Ordered to consent calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-08-19** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 73. Noes 0. Page 2439.) Ordered to the Senate. `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-08-19** In Senate. Ordered to engrossing and enrolling.
- **2021-08-30** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 1 p.m.
- **2021-10-07** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2021-10-07** Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 644, Statutes of 2021. `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/a8261096-7b1e-43e0-a144-1ea088d38b90`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).