Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
VIII. Farmland Ranking System <br />31 <br />The Farmland Ranking System will be used to rank, or prioritize, applications received <br />from landowners seeking sale or donation of their development rights. The system can <br />also be used for evaluating conversion impact. <br />The system consists of two parts: <br />Site Assessment Criteria: This part of the system consists of 10 factors, <br />most of which are related to development pressures and development <br />capability /suitability of a particular farm parcel and its surrounding area. <br />Each factor is assigned a point value based on its relative importance to <br />other factors. <br />2. - Soil Assessment Criteria: All soils in Forsyth County have been rated and <br />placed into groups ranging from the most productive farmland to the least <br />productive. A relative value has been determined for each group — the best <br />group is assigned the highest value and all other groups are assigned lower <br />values. <br />To determine the total value of a given parcel, the values for the Soil Assessment and Site <br />Assessment criteria are added together. <br />Site Assessment Criteria <br />The following information describes the criteria to be used in site evaluation in <br />administering the Farmland Preservation Program. Point values and the criteria for <br />allocation of ranking points are listed below. <br />1. Farm Size (weight - 100 Points) <br />A score of one point per acre is given up to a maximum of 100 points. <br />2. Percentage of Farm in Agricultural Use (weight - 100 points) <br />A score of one ranking point per percentage point of land in production <br />compared to total farm size is given up to maximum of 100 points. <br />16 <br />