Agenda - 05-15-2007-3b - Laserfiche WebLink

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ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: May 15, 2007 Action Agenda Item No. ,3 ~ b SUBJECT: Resolution of Approval -Conservation Easement for the Lee Farm DEPARTMENT: Environment and Resource PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No Conservation ATTACHMENT Resolution of Approval Location Map Site Map Draft Conservation Easement INFORMATION CONTACT: David Stancil, 245-2590 Rich Shaw, 245-2591 PURPOSE: To consider a resolution to .approve the purchase of and acceptance by Orange County of an agricultural conservation easement for the Lee Farm. BACKGROUND: The acquisition of agricultural conservation easements to protect prime farmland in Orange County is a longstanding goal of the Board of Commissioners, and is a priority of the Lands Legacy Program. Since completing the County's first agricultural conservation easement in 2001, Orange County has protected 1,153 acres of prime farmland and riparian buffers with conservation easements. Another 834 acres of important natural and cultural resource lands have been protected by other means. In April 2005, Orange County, in cooperation with the Orange NRCS/Soil and Water Conservation District Office, applied for matching grant funds from the federal Farm and Ranch Land Protection Program (FRPP). A portion of those grant funds will be used to purchase of a conservation easement to protect approximately 70 acres of the Lee Farm. The Lee Farm is located along Bill Poole Road northeast of Hillsborough at the Orange - Durham county boundary (Little River Township). The farm is owned and operated by Bill Lee, a member of the Poole family that has farmed in the County for several generations. The farm is located within the Little River Protected Watershed, which the County identified as a priority watershed for acquiring farmland easements in a dual effort to protect prime farmland and drinking water quality. Two creeks flow through the farm on their way to the Little River -the primary drinking water source for Durham County. The Lee farm is adjacent to 88 acres of farmland located in Durham County, which is also in the process of being protected by a conservation easement. Those 88 acres of farmland are . adjacent to another 26 acres already protected by conservation easement held by Durham County. Including the Lee farm, the total area of protected land would be 184 acres.