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044 <br /> If agriculture is to continue as a way of fife in the county, farmers must be assisted in helping them <br /> stay on the land. Important farmlands must also be preserved, for they are among the best suited <br /> for development due to more moderate slopes and better permeability. <br /> In 1982, the U.S. Department of Agriculture developed definitions of and criteria for classifying <br /> important farmlands as part of the Farmland Protection Policy Act. The most commonly used <br /> definition for farmland preservation purposes is prime farmland or land that has the best <br /> combination of physical and chemical characteristics for producing food, feed, fiber, forage, <br /> oilseet4 and other agricultural crops with minimum inputs of fuel, fertiliser, pesticides, and <br /> labor. It may be croplan4 pasturel=4 or forest land but not urban built-up land or water. <br /> In Orange County, there are 136,688 acres of prime farmland according to the USDA definition. <br /> However, not all of this land is in active farm use. Based on LANDSAT satellite data and the Sail <br /> Survey of Orange County, N.C., approximately 38 percent or 51,831 acres of prime farmland is <br /> used for crop and pasture land. As shown on the Prime Farmland Map, these lands are located <br /> primarily in the northern, western, and southwestern portions of the county. <br /> Steep Slopes <br /> Orange County is located in the geographic province of North Carolina known as the Piedmont. <br /> This area is characterized by gently rolling topography drained by small streams which have cut <br /> "V" shaped valleys. Elevation generally ranges from 700-800 feet in the northern part of the <br /> county to 200 feet in the extreme southeast. The highest point in the county is Occoneechee <br /> Mountain, with an elevation of 859 feet. The lowest point is near Jordan Lake in the southeast <br /> comer of the county, where the elevation is approximately 230 feet. <br /> Slope indicates the relative suitability of vacant land for future development. Excessive or steep <br /> slopes are a factor in many environmental problems and can significantly increase the vulnerability <br /> of land to damage from human activities. The potential for erosion and resulting sedimentation <br /> from areas laid bare by construction activity increases as the slope increases. Steep slopes also <br /> pose a problem for septic tank filtration systems. Effluent traveling down slope which hits an <br /> impermeable layer, such as a shallow bedrock, can travel laterally and emerge at the surface, <br /> causing health and aesthetic problems. - - --- - <br /> Land with a slope of less than five percent is considered moderately sloping and is capable of <br /> accommodating most types of development activities not requiring extensive tracts of level land. <br /> Slopes exceeding 15 percent(15 feet of vertical change per 100 feet of horizontal distance) offers <br /> an obstacle to potential development. Such land is considered generally unsuitable for intensive <br /> development and economically unfeasible for building utility facilities. The presence of steep <br /> slopes does not, in and of itself, prohibit development. When it does coincide with other <br /> constraining features, though, future growth should be directed towards less sensitive areas. This <br /> action also serves to direct development away from areas with generally higher development <br /> costs. <br />