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3 <br />Over the past several years, Orange County has acquired properties for <br />fixture park or open space use that are or have previously been in <br />agricultural use, primarily in the production of grass/hay. In some cases, <br />these properties have been acquired and "land-banked for a future park or <br />open space use that is not yet programmed for construction. <br />In order to pursue the possibility of raising rrevenues from these activities <br />toward maintenance and stewardship of the land, and in the interest of <br />providing air opportunity for local farnxers to gain income from agricultural <br />production orx these lands, the following report is proposed to address the <br />temporary use of County-owned lands for agriculture. <br />A. Lands Legacy Properties That May Be Suitable for Temporary <br />Agricultural Production <br />Since its inception in April 2000, Orange County's Lands Legacy Program has acquired <br />(by both fee-simple purchase and conservation easement) 1600 acres of the County's <br />important natural and cultural resource lands, as well as future park sites. <br />Over half of this acreage is in conservation easements, which remain in private ownership <br />with the County having generally acquired the non-agricultural rights in the propertyt. <br />The remaining 770 acres are owned by the County in fee-simple (or outright). Many of <br />these lands are future park sites or lands that will be part of planned County nature <br />preserves. <br />Some of the future park sites include lands that were formerly in agricultural use, <br />although all had ceased to be working farms in the traditional sense at the time of <br />acquisition. It is these lands that are the focus of this assessment - lands acquired for <br />future park use that were formerly (and in some cases may still be) in agricultural use. <br />There are currently four County-owned Lands Legacy properties that meet this criteria. <br />The report assumes that other lands that are forested or are not / have not been in <br />In these cases, the property owner retains the right to conduct agricultural operations or perform other <br />activities as long as they are in keeping with the legally-binding easement (such as farm structures and <br />occasionally a few house lots for family members) Easement provisions run with the land and are <br />perpetual. The County's holding of these easements to date does not provide for input on the type of farm <br />or the agricultural activities that occur on the land, as per the easement language. <br />February 9, 2006