Title 5 — Government Operations

This Chapter shall be known as the Guam Land Conservation Act. SOURCE: GC § 12500 as added by P.L. 12-225. In the 1974 Supplement to the Government Code, this Chapter is found as GC § 12600 et seq. All SOURCE references in this Chapter are to P.L. 12-225 unless noted otherwise.

As used in this Chapter, unless otherwise apparent from the context: (a) Agricultural commodity means any and all plant and animal products produced in Guam for commercial purposes. (b) Agricultural use means use of land for the purpose of producing an agricultural commodity for …

Notwithstanding any provision of this Chapter to the contrary, the following may be included within an agricultural reserve pursuant to this Chapter: (a) Land devoted to recreational use; (b) A wildlife habitat area which is a land or water area designated by the Department as an…

(a) Beginning January 1, 1974, the Department, after a public hearing may establish agricultural preserves. No later than thirty (30) days prior to any such hearing the Department shall publish in a newspaper of general circulation in Guam a notice which shall include a legal des…

Preserves. For the purposes of this Chapter, the Department shall adopt rules governing the administration of agricultural preserves, including procedures for initiating, filing and processing requests to establish agricultural preserves. Such rules shall be applied uniformly thr…

In the event any proposal to disestablish or to alter the boundary of an agricultural preserve will remove land under contract from such a preserve, notice of the proposed alteration or disestablishment and the date of the hearing shall be furnished by the board or council to the…

(a) Any proposal to establish an agricultural preserve shall be submitted to the Guam Land Use Commission. Within thirty (30) days after receiving such a proposal, the Guam Land Use Commission shall submit a report thereon to the Department; provided, however, that the Department…

The effect of removal of land under contract from an agricultural preserve shall be the equivalent of notice of nonrenewal by the Department and the Department shall, at least sixty (60) days prior to the next renewal date following the removal, serve a notice of nonrenewal as pr…

Whenever an agricultural preserve is established and so long as it shall be in effect, a map of such agricultural preserve shall be filed and kept current by the Department of Agriculture with the Department of Land Management. SOURCE: GC § 12509.

Notwithstanding any determining of compatible uses by the Department pursuant to this Chapter, unless the Department, after notice and hearing, makes a finding to the contrary, the erection, construction, alteration, or maintenance of electric, water, or communication utility fac…

The Department may, by contract, limit the use of agricultural land for the purpose of preserving such land pursuant and subject to the conditions set forth in the contract and in this Chapter. A contract may provide for restrictions, terms and conditions, including payments and …

(a) If such a contract is made with any landowner, the Department shall offer such a contract under similar terms to every other owner of agricultural land within the agricultural preserve in question. (b) However, except as required by other provisions of this Chapter, the provi…

The Department may not contract with respect to any land pursuant to this Chapter unless the land (a) is devoted to agricultural use, and (b) is located within an area designated as an agricultural preserve. SOURCE: GC § 12513.

Every contract shall: (a) Provide for the exclusion of uses other than agricultural and other than those compatible with agricultural use, for the duration of the contract; (b) Be binding upon, and inure to the benefit of, all successors in interest to the owner. Whenever land un…

Each contract shall be for an initial term of no less than ten years. Each contract shall provide that on the anniversary date of the contract, or such other annual date as specified by the contract, a year shall be added automatically to the initial term unless notice of nonrene…

Notwithstanding the provisions of § 65305, if the initial term of the contract is for twenty years or more the contract may provide that on the anniversary date of the contract or such other annual date as specified by the contract beginning with the anniversary date on which the…

(a) If either the landowner or the Department desires in any year not to renew the contract, that party shall serve written notice of nonrenewal of the contract upon the other party in advance of the annual renewal date of the contract. Unless such written notice is served by the…

If the Department or the landowner serves notice of intent in any year not to renew the contract, the existing contract shall remain in effect for the balance of the period remaining since the original execution or the last renewal of the contract, as the case may be. SOURCE: GC …

The landowner shall furnish the Department with such information as it shall require in order to enable it to determine the eligibility of the land involved. SOURCE: GC § 12519.

No later than twenty days after the Department enters into a contract with a landowner pursuant to this Chapter, the Department shall record with the Department of Land Management a copy of the contract, which shall describe the land subject thereto, together with a reference to …

Guam or landowner may bring any action in court necessary to enforce any contract including but not limited to an action to enforce the contract by specific performance or injunction. SOURCE: GC § 12521. 2023 NOTE: Reference to “Territory” replaced with “Guam” pursuant to 1 GCA §…

It is hereby declared that the purpose of this Article is to provide relief from the provisions of contracts entered into pursuant to this Chapter only when the continued dedication of land under such contracts to agricultural use is neither necessary nor desirable for the purpos…

A contract may not be cancelled except pursuant to a request by the landowner, and as provided by this Article. SOURCE: GC § 12523.

The landowner may petition the Department for cancellation of any contract as to all or any part of the subject land. The Department may approve the cancellation of a contract only if it finds: (a) that the cancellation is not inconsistent with the purposes of this Chapter; and (…

Fee; Deferred Taxes; Waiver of Payment; Distribution of Deferred Taxes. (a) Prior to any action of the Department giving tentative approval to the cancellation of any contract, the assessor shall determine the full cash value of the land in accordance with 11 GCA §§ 24305, 24306,…

(a) Upon tentative approval of the cancellation petition, the Department of Agriculture shall record in the Department of Land Management a certificate which shall set forth the name of the owner of such land at the time the contract was cancelled with the amount of the cancellat…

No contract may be cancelled until after the Department has given notice of, and has held, a public hearing on the matter. Notice of the hearing shall be published in a newspaper of general circulation for ten days prior to such hearing, and shall be mailed to each and every owne…

The owner of any property located in the agricultural preserve may protest such cancellation to the Department conducting the hearing. SOURCE: GC § 12528. ARTICLE 5 EMINENT DOMAIN OR OTHER ACQUISITION

(a) It is the policy of Guam to avoid, whenever practicable, the location of any Guam public improvements of public utilities, and the acquisition of land therefor, in agricultural preserves. (b) It is further the policy of Guam that, whenever it is necessary to locate such impro…

(a) When any action in eminent domain for the condemnation of the fee title of an entire parcel of land subject to a contract is filed or when such land is acquired in lieu of eminent domain for a public improvement by a public agency or whenever there is any such action or acqui…