Agenda - 08-08-1994-X-A - Laserfiche WebLink

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3 • Recommend that Orange County adopt the Land Evaluation and Site Assessment (LESA) point system as a means of determining where agricultural districts and purchase of development rights will be pursued. At its annual goal-setting retreat in December, 1989,the work of the first Agricultural Districts Advisory Board as well as the Rural Character Study Committee prompted the Board of Commissioners to establish a goal of developing a proposal for a purchase of development rights program. In August, 1990, the Board of Commissioners reconstituted the Agricultural Districts Advisory Board and charged it with developing a purchase of development rights (PDR) program for Orange County. One month later, the Advisory Board initiated its work, and, in June of 1991, presented a status report to the Board of Commissioners on the proposal. Following receipt of the report,the Board of Commissioners asked the Advisory Board to include additional site criteria in the system of ranking farmland and to prepare a Farmland Preservation Ordinance. A PURCHASE OF DEVELOPMENT RIGHTS PROPOSAL A common thread linking the efforts of elected officials and representatives of various advisory boards,task forces,and study committees has been a desire to preserve the rural character of the county and support for developing a purchase of development rights proposal. As the Agricultural Districts Advisory Board initiated work on a proposal,it focused on the successful program implemented by Forsyth County. Since the first purchases in 1987, Forsyth County had acquired development rights on 22 farms with a total of 1,303 acres.The County acquired these rights through purchases and leases for a total of$1.97 million or an average of approximately$1,509 per acre. As Forsyth County had done, the Agricultural Districts Advisory Board started with the most basic question - how does one go about deciding which farms should have priority in terms of the purchase of development rights? After considering several options, the Advisory Board elected to use the Soil Conservation Service's LESA system for farmland evaluation. The LESA system refers to the Land Evaluation and Site Assessment system developed by the Soil Conservation Service in the mid-1980's. The two-part system for evaluating farmland has been used extensively and focuses on the quality or productivity of a given site; e.g.,land evaluation,and its continued economic viability; e.g.,site assessment.The Soil Conservation Service has produced a guidebook for use in preparing a local LESA system, and, upon completion, the system can be used to assign priorities in acquiring development rights. The major advantage of such a system is that the most productive and economically viable farmlands are preserved for future generations. Other benefits include the use of the system in identifying important farmlands and potential agricultural districts, and preparing and updating comprehensive land use plans. Given these benefits, the Agricultural Districts Advisory Board elected to develop a proposal in two parts. The first part; e.g., the LESA system, views a"farm" as more than a farm and provides a method for ranking the significance of any site: