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22 <br />IV. Lease of Development Rights <br />A. General <br />Forsyth County, through the Board of Supervisors, will lease development <br />rights in agricultural lands. High priority will be given to applicants <br />located within an APA. Applications will be ranked based upon various <br />site factors, such as the level of development pressure and agricultural <br />production capability. Development rights will be leased in accordance <br />with the ranking of farm properties and the availability of allocated funds. <br />Compensation for development rights will be based on the board's <br />determination of cash rent values for comparable land. The lease price <br />will be subject to negotiation. The leasing of development rights will be a <br />low priority, used only when insufficient interest in the purchase of <br />development rights exists. <br />B. Description <br />The lease of development rights is legally binding, restricting the owner <br />and future owners to agricultural and/or open space use of the land. <br />The development rights will be held in public trust by Forsyth County. <br />C. Minimum Eligibility Criteria <br />The agricultural land must be at least ten (10) acres in size or contiguous <br />to a ten (10) acie tract for which the county holds the development rights, <br />and be in agricultural or open space use. <br />D. Apmlication Procedure <br />An application must be submitted to the Forsyth Soil and Water <br />Conservation District Office. <br />E. Review and Rankine of Applications <br />The Board of Supervisors will review and rank each of the applications <br />using the Farmland Ranking System, which is based on the Land Evalua- <br />tion and Site Assessment System developed by the USDA, Natural <br />Resources Conservation Service. <br />F. Acquisition <br />1. The Board of Supervisors will calculate a maximum cash rent <br />value for each application. A cash rent value factor will be set <br />7 <br />