Agenda - 03-01-2016 - 6-a - Minutes

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6 1 Noah Oswald said the draft plan submitted to the BOCC consists of three components: 2 gather information, innovative solutions, and effective collaboration. He said he would like to 3 give the BOCC and the public more information about the impact of affordable housing efforts. 4 He said his Board has talked about property inventory, housing vouchers and barriers landlords 5 face in offering affordable housing. He said there are a lot of units working toward affordable 6 housing that can be coordinated to have a far greater impact on the issue. He said his Board is 7 hoping to work more effectively with its sister boards and the non-profit community. 8 Commissioner Pelissier expressed agreement with the goal of effective collaboration. 9 She referred to the work plan and asked if the BOCC can attend the affordable housing bus 10 tour. 11 Noah Oswald said he was not part of the Board the last time this tour was conducted, 12 but he would extend an invitation to the BOCC when the tour next occurs. 13 14 • Agricultural Preservation Board (APB): Renee McPherson, Chair 15 Renee McPherson thanked the BOCC for her appointment. 16 Staff Member Peter Sandbeck said the APB had a good year and added 17 new farms 17 this past year voluntarily. He said there is a total of 69 farms in the program now. He said the 18 ordinance was tweaked to allow farms that are not in the present use program to be in the 19 voluntary agricultural district program, and there is now have one farmer who is eligible. 20 21 Issues: 22 o Current Present Use program rules require that new owners or heirs of farmland must 23 apply for Present Use status within a short period of time after the land transfer has 24 taken place, or the option to enroll expires. Some farmers and property owners are not 25 aware of this rule and are forced to wait the full four-year waiting period before they are 26 able to participate in the Present Use program. Better education is needed to inform 27 new owners of this requirement. 28 o Efforts to keep farmland in agricultural producing and farmers in farming in the County 29 depend partly on developing and maintaining local and regional markets for farm 30 products. Nationally and regionally, direct-to-consumer sales of farm products appear to 31 be plateauing or decreasing by some measures, such as sales at farmers markets and 32 customer participation in CSAs. The APB would like to explore the possibility of forming 33 a study group or task force to develop strategies for fostering local direct-to-consumer 34 and regional sales opportunities for our farmers. 35 o Nuisance lawsuits by neighboring property owners continue to be a problem for some 36 farmers. Those who purchase property next to a pre-existing farm operation still have 37 the ability to complain and sue based on farm smells and noise unless the farm is 38 already enrolled in the VAD/EVAD program. 39 40 Chair McKee said he thinks the tax office sends out notifications regarding Present Use 41 status, but he would follow up. 42 Commissioner Pelissier said part of the problem may be the timing of the notification 43 between the Register of Deeds office and the tax office. 44 Commissioner Jacobs said inserts could be placed in tax bills, or during the revaluation, 45 to remind the owners of these requirements. 46 Peter Sandbeck said some members talked about direct sales to consumers plateauing 47 and suggested perhaps a committee could look at this issue. 48 Commissioner Rich said the report referred to the Orange County Agriculture Heritage 49 project, which takes oral histories, and asked if there is a plan for where this will be kept.