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also increasingly being utilized for farmland protection programs, such as the identification <br />of priority areas to concentrate conservation easement acquisition efforts. <br />Because of the inherent flexibility in LESA model design, there is a broad array of <br />factors that a given LESA model can utilize. Some LESA models require the <br />measurement of as many as twenty different factors. Over the past 15 years, the body of <br />knowledge concerning LESA model development and application has begun to indicate <br />that LESA models utilizing only several basic factors can capture much of the variability <br />associated with the determination of the relative value of agricultural lands. In fact, LESA <br />models with many factors are increasingly viewed as having redundancies, with different <br />factors essentially measuring the same features, or being highly correlated with one <br />another. Additional information on the evolution and development of the LESA approach <br />is provided in, A Decade with LESA -The Evolution of Land Evaluation and Site <br />Assessment (8). <br />Development of the California Agricultural LESA Model <br />In 1990 the Department of Conservation commissioned a study to investigate land <br />use decisions that affect the conversion of agricultural lands in California. The study, <br />conducted by Jones and Stokes Associates, Inc., was prepared in response to concerns <br />about agricultural land conversion identified in the California Soil Conservation Plan (1) <br />(developed by the ad hoc Soil Conservation Advisory Committee serving the Department <br />of Conservation in 1987). Among these concerns was the belief that there was inadequate <br />information available concerning the socioeconomic and environmental implications of <br />farmland conversions, and that the adequacy of current farmland conversion impact <br />analysis under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) was not fully known. The <br />findings of this study are included in the publication, The Impacts of Farmland Conversion <br />in California (2). <br />Currently, neither CEQA nor the State CEQA Guidelines contains procedures or <br />specific guidance concerning how agencies should address farmland conversion impacts <br />of projects. The only specific mention of agricultural issues is contained in Appendix G of <br />the State CEQA Guidelines, which states that a project will normally have a significant <br />effect on the environment if it will "convert prime agricultural land to non - agricultural use or <br />impair the agricultural productivity of prime agricultural land'. <br />Among the conclusions contained in The Impacts of Farmland Conversion in <br />California study was that the lack of guidance in how lead agencies should address the <br />significance of farmland conversion impacts resulted in many instances of no impact <br />analysis at all. A survey of environmental documents sent to the Governor's Office of <br />Planning and Research (OPR) between 1986 and 1988 was performed. The survey <br />