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•:Tr'' °�""4'• i "'-.'1 �`'r.""ti':- '=�'-.ter o DRAFT PROPOSED 12/20/82 1/7/83 ORANGE COUNTY FARM PRESERVATION PROGRAM FINDINGS OF FACT Prime farmland is an irreplaceable asset and resource of Orange County. Orange County has experienced a substantial: yin population as well as a large decrease in farmland since 1950. Such growth pressure is likely to continue in future decades. As a consequence, land prices and values have and will continue to escalate putting further economic pressure on County agriculture and increasing the cost of continued farm operations as well as acquisition of land for farm expansion. The encroachment of the non-farm population into farming areas will also increase the liklihood of nuisance complaints, vandalism, crop theft and damage, crop and soil pollution, increased traffic and other impedi- ments to farm operations. Major public projects proposed for Orange County will probably, impact farm operations in the County directly through acquisition of farm prop- erty as well as indirectly by increasing the desireability, of and accessibility to farming areas. These projects include the development of Seven Mile and Cane Creek Reservoirs; development of the Eno River State Park; construction of I-40 and the southern By-pass of NC 54; and widening of I-85. Orange County's leading agricultural revenue producer, dairy farming, is concentrated in areas under increasing development pressure. Dairy- ing involves a large capital investment and, as such, it is more expen- sive to relocate such an operation in the face of development pressures. Poultry and egg operations are both potentially the subject of nuisance complaints from non-farm residents. Inflation continues to place economic burdens on farmers in Orange County. POLICY OBJECTIVES 1. The problem of increasing tax burdens on agriculture should be alleviated. 2. The occurence of complaints and nuisance suits against farm operations should be minimized. 3. The negative impacts of proposed public projects on farming operations and on prime and locally important farmland should be minimized. 4. Relocation of farming operations due to non-farm development pressures should be minimized.