Orange County NC Website
21, <br />It is the group relative values that are used to calculate the <br />value of one site relative to another for forest land use. The <br />assignment of relative value ranges and the calculation of group <br />relative values is shown in detail on Table 10. <br />APPLICATION <br />As was the case with cropland, the average relative value of a <br />forest site must be calculated before a decision is made about <br />whether or not to acquire the development rights. To determine the <br />average relative value, the following procedure is used: <br />1. Locate the site on a soil survey map and determine the <br />kind of soils on the site. <br />2. Determine the acreage of each soil and the appropriate <br />forest land group for each soil. <br />3. Multiply the number of acres of soils in each <br />forest land group times the group relative value on <br />Table 10. <br />4. Add the products of the multiplication performed in step <br />3. <br />5. Divide the total value obtained in step 4 by the total <br />acreage on the site. The quotient will represent the <br />average relative value of the site. <br />To illustrate the application of this procedure, the relative <br />values of the farms of each member of the Agricultural Districts <br />Advisory Board were calculated. Only forest land and only that <br />portion of a farm contiguous to the homestead were considered in <br />the calculations. Based on the calculations shown on Table 11, the <br />Walters (94) farm ranked the highest for acquisition of development <br />rights, followed by the Hogan (91), Strayhorn (90), Nutter (89), <br />and Rogers (76) farms. <br />In the next section, a technique for assessing the economic <br />viability of a site for agricultural use is presented. In <br />combination. -Vith the techniques for evaluating cropland and forest <br />land qualt;:.it will determine where a site falls on the overall <br />rating scale -f-or development rights acquisition. <br />