Agenda - 12-07-2009 - 4a - Laserfiche WebLink

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8 1 2 Dave Stancil said that the next round of grants for this comes up in December. 3 The recommendation is for the Board to adopt the plan in accordance with the 4 resolution, and authorize staff to submit the adopted FPP to the North Carolina Department of 5 Agriculture and Consumer Services. 6 7 Commissioner Gordon made reference to the resolution, and the third "Whereas" where 8 it says, "permanent protection of more than 2,500 acres of farmland." She noted that 2500 9 acres was the total amount of land protected and not just farmland. She suggested saying 10 "2,500 acres of land," and then finding out how much farmland this was specifically protected. If 11 the specific amount is not known, then she suggested the following language: "more than 12 2,500 acres of land, including significant amounts of farmland obtained through agricultural 13 conservation easements." 14 Commissioner Pelissier said that she likes the way this involves different stakeholders. 15 She said that a farm survey is going to be distributed in January. She said that this is about 16 farming and not just about farmland preservation. She asked how much money was in the 17 Agricultural Development Farmland Preservation Trust Fund and how much has been used. 18 Dave Stancil said that for this cycle there is approximately $3 million. Orange County 19 was one of the first entities to receive money from this, but there has not been much money to 20 give in recent years. 21 Commissioner Pelissier asked if the Economic Development Commission would also be 22 involved, and to what extent. 23 Dave Stancil said that there has been discussion of a joint meeting with the EDC early 24 next year. 25 26 Commissioner Jacobs made several grammatical corrections to the document and staff 27 indicated that they would make the suggested changes. 28 29 On page 43, under Piedmont Value-Added Shared-Use Food & Agricultural Processing 30 Center, he thinks that this should be very upfront and have that it was Orange County and its 31 public/private partners. He does not want to portray that Orange County did this alone. 32 Commissioner Jacobs asked about the Agricultural Support Enterprises program (pp. 48 33 and 51) and said that it was supposed to come back to the Board a long time ago. 34 Planning Director Craig Benedict said that originally this was an exercise of ERCD and 35 EDC. As it moved through the process, there was a delay and now the Planning Department is 36 working with EDC to work this into the Unified Development Ordinance program. Staff can give 37 a status report. 38 39 On page 48, regarding the Value-Added Processing Center, instead of "the County hired 40 a broker," it should say, "the four-county entity hired a broker," to reiterate the partnership. 41 On page 49, the Cedar Grove United Methodist Church should be specific and 42 "Granges" should be capitalized. 43 On page 51, item 6-e, "Require buffers between residences and farm fields and 44 buildings as part of new residential subdivisions," he said that this should be done already. 45 46 Commissioner Jacobs made reference to page 52, and the tax relief incentives, and he 47 suggested that an item `e' be added: "Support a revision to the revenue and acreage 48 requirements of the use Value Program. Many operations can easily meet the revenue 49 requirements but do not meet the minimum ten acres threshold for agricultural operations." He 50 said that there are more and more small acreages that are generating revenue, but are