BOA agenda 121216 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

cannot rely alone on whether there's farming activity going on, but is the use that is proposed for a non-1 farm purpose? I've provided you several cases. I'm going to talk about a few of them here. One of them I'd 2 like to point out now is the case called Ball B. Rooter, Randolph County, in your materials. In the Ball case 3 the person who own the property was using farm equipment to till petroleum-contaminated soil. And the 4 court looked at that and said, well you know there's a farm there and that's where equipment and it's 5 making some money for the farm, but it is a non-farm used because it was really soil remediation. It was 6 not farming. What the ball case tells us is twofold. Number one is just because it is happening on the farm 7 does not mean that it is a farm purpose. And number two, the courts have demonstrated that we need to 8 look behind the use to be sure that the use is not a use for a non-farm purpose. That then causes you to 9 ask the question of what is a farm purpose? You look at 150a-340 and it talks about activities related to and 10 incidental to the production of agricultural products. Is the activity related to and incidental to production of 11 agricultural products? This statute then incorporates the definition of agricultural in NCGS 106-581.1. I've 12 given you a copy of that as well. That statute makes clear it has a litany of things that constitute farm 13 purposes. But if you read it all the way through that statute also says those things are farm purposes when 14 they are related to or incidental to a bona fide farm purpose. One of those things is agritourism. What does 15 it mean to be related to or incidental to? Well the dictionary definition, which you use of your capacity as 16 interpreters of this statute, is it happens as a minor part or as a result of something else. So in the context 17 of the statute the activity that is claimed to be exempt must be a minor part. Let me say that again. It must 18 be a minor part or directly related to the exempt farm purpose. If not it falls under the zoning regulations. It 19 falls under the zoning regulations that an event center in Orange County in the AR zone must have the 20 special use permit. You will recall just a moment ago facts not listed in my findings of facts that I had asked 21 Ms. Brewer on the 10th how many square feet of this 4,600 and some odd square foot structure were 22 needed to store any of her farm products and in your findings of fact indicate that she couldn't answer that 23 question as to flowers, or as to chestnut flour, or chestnuts. She couldn't answer as to equipment. She 24 couldn't tell us what she was going to do with the equipment and the flour in order to keep her promise to 25 brides that she had a full run of the farm. Mr. Brewer tonight answered the question about the machine. Let 26 me go back to my note. He indicated that the machine that we need to do store in this 4600 square foot 27 barn would be possibly 5 feet by 5 feet. Just going to stick in the kitchen. With the caterers. Who may or 28 may not be in the kitchen. A 4,600 square foot barn, with a septic system designed to accommodate 250 29 people 3 days a week, with a parking lot designed to accommodate 125 cars, with a service entrance 30 identified in the plans for things like caterers and florists is not a barn that was built for farm purposes. 31 We’re not going to clean out the barn and have an occasional wedding. We're going to clean out the farm 32 all the time to have a wedding event center. It is not incidental. A couple of the other cases I’ve included in 33 your packet; there’s a case called County of Durham V Robert. This case is instructed as is the next one 34 I’m going to speak about because in County of Durham V Roberts there was a one time sale of excavated 35 soil incidental to improving pasture land and expanding the farm. This is somebody who had a horse farm. 36 They flattened it, they dug the pond, and they took the dirt, and they sold it. The Durham County said, 37 “Well, wait a minute. You’re selling dirt, that’s not farming”. That’s incidental. That was a one-time thing; you 38 sold it. That’s what incidental means. It makes sense. It makes common sense. North inaudible County 39 neighbors for a rural life inaudible County is the other side of the corn. There, we have a biodiesel 40 production operation. The courts said no. Even if you’re using farm equipment to do that that is an industrial 41 use. I think you were handed, and I have included in your packet, was a copy of NCGS I9e-30 and 31. 42 That’s not a statute that is cited in 153a. It’s not the statute that the legislature sent you back to find the 43 definition of agritourism or farming or anything else. What that statute is is part of the legislation. There’s a 44 section in the statutes for special liability protection. And one of the special liability protections that is 45 offered in North Carolina is a special liability protection for agritourism. And so that statute has been 46 provided to you to say, “Look, see”. Agritourism is a kind of farming. Well let’s look at that statute more 47 carefully. It defines agritourism as any activity carried out on a farm or ranch that allowed members of the 48 91