Help Us Fight an Unfair Retroactive Tax

Here's what happened.

Dare 2 Dream Farms has been welcoming guests to our working farm since 2013 — beginning with our WWOOF agricultural exchange program and opening our farm to public tours in 2014. In 2017 we expanded to include Airbnb farm stay accommodations and farm events. In 2018, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted against pursuing a legal framework for farm-based lodging on agricultural properties — a decision one Supervisor later publicly admitted had the unintended effect of prohibiting farmstays countywide for years. We did not learn of this ruling until 2019. Jeremy joined the County's Farmstay Advisory Committee — bringing his perspective as a working farmer to help find a common-sense solution — a group led by Planning Commissioner John Parke whose recommendations eventually became the Agricultural Enterprise Ordinance. Despite that work, the County did not pass the ordinance until December 2024 — over five years later, and years past its originally projected 2021 effective date.

In December 2024, the County passed the Agricultural Enterprise Ordinance — legislation that Supervisor Joan Hartmann described at the hearing as designed to give working farms "additional uses" so they could "stabilize their income during the ups and downs of what is a very difficult way to make a living." The ordinance was intended to help small farms survive in one of the most challenging agricultural regions in California. We were relieved. But buried in that same ordinance was language authorizing retroactive audits going back three years — with full penalties and interest — for a period when no legal framework, no permit pathway, and no compliance mechanism yet existed. An ordinance meant to help small farms is now being used to harm one. Our audit came back at approximately $65,000.

We appealed to the County Tax Collector, who confirmed they cannot change the amount. Our final appeal is before the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors on July 7, 2026. Supervisor Joan Hartmann represents our district.

Paying this assessment would force us to make choices that directly undermine what this farm has built. To absorb a $65,000 liability, we would have to reduce or eliminate our CSA program and cut farm stand hours — the same CSA that expanded to 500% of its previous capacity during COVID-19 to serve as an emergency food operation when Lompoc families couldn't safely shop, and that donates excess produce to Veggie Rescue every month. These are among the most direct ways this farm has put food into the hands of the community it operates in. We would likely need to reduce staff hours or let seasonal workers go during the fall and winter months when the farm is already running lean. And most ironically, we would have to convert our short-term farm stay accommodations to long-term rentals. We chose short-term farm stay accommodations because of what they offered that a long-term rental never could — a genuine glimpse of life on a working farm. Guests would wake up and see us in the fields at sunrise. They would meet the animals, walk the garden, and understand firsthand where their food comes from. That was the point. When we started, the economics worked. There was no TOT fee, and Airbnb's platform fees were structured very differently. Over time, the financial picture has shifted significantly: a 14% TOT tax, declining bookings, and Airbnb recently shifting their full 15.5% host fee onto the host have eroded the margin to the point where long-term rentals now generate comparable income — with a fraction of the overhead. Long-term rentals now generate comparable income without the staff hours required for turnovers, restocking, and guest services. We would make that switch to survive — but it would mean ending exactly the kind of farm-based hospitality the Agricultural Enterprise Ordinance was designed to create and protect. The ordinance that was supposed to stabilize this farm would instead be the reason we abandon the very thing it was meant to support.