Orange County NC Website
?0 <br />person doing the title search should be informed. He <br />continued \that the Board could only go as far as permitted <br />by the enabling legislation. <br />Walters stated that, from past experience with State <br />attorneys, it was made very clear that the responsibility <br />was on the buyer to secure the necessary information <br />before purchasing rather than the person doing the title <br />search. <br />Collins noted that the intent is to revise the permit <br />system and the form so that, if someone does buy the <br />property, the information that it is within one- -half <br />mile of a agricultural district will be included on the <br />permit form. <br />Hunter noted that she would also like for developers to be <br />informed when property they wished to develop is located <br />in an agricultural district. Collins responded that the <br />developers could be informed through the development <br />application process. <br />The three board members present were in agreement with the <br />revised conservation agreement as presented by Collins. <br />However, there are six board members and a quorum is <br />four. Without a quorum of four, no vote could be taken. <br />Collins noted that he would talk with the County Attorney <br />to determine whether this application could go forward to <br />the County Commissioners. <br />b. LESA System - Cropland Evaluation <br />- Farmland Evaluation <br />Presentation by Marvin Collins. <br />This item is to consider revisions 'to the land evaluation <br />portions of the LESA system. <br />In the summer of 1991, a report was presented to the Board <br />of Commissioners concerning a purchase of development <br />rights program for Orange County. The program was modeled <br />after that of Forsyth County, with acquisition of <br />development rights determined by farmland rankings <br />according to the Soil Conservation Service's (SCS) LESA <br />(Land Evaluation & Site Assessment) system. <br />Following receipt of the report, the Commissioners asked <br />the Agricultural Districts Advisory Board to consider <br />revisions to the site assessment criteria. As part of its <br />work, staff has reviewed the land evaluation section as <br />well, including new SCS data used in calculating soil <br />productivity and relative values for agricultural groups. <br />The number of farms analyzed using the updated values has <br />also been increased from five to twelve to illustrate the <br />