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2 engage in uses related to agriculture on their farmland in order to generate additional farm income with the intent of better enabling farmers to keep farming, thereby preserving an important part of Orange County’s heritage. Use-specific and general development standards are also proposed in order to minimize any adverse impacts on adjoining and nearby properties. The ASE program within the Rural Buffer land use classification will potentially allow for development of more agriculturally-related uses in the geographic area of the county designated “Rural Buffer” by utilizing a new conditional zoning district (ASE-CZ) and by expanding agriculturally-related uses in the Rural Buffer general use zoning district. 2. Analysis Readers are encouraged to also view the companion Amendment Outline Form for “Agricultural Support Enterprises Outside of the Rural Buffer Land Use Classification” to gain more information about the entire ASE program (available as part of item #8 on the April 2, 2014 Planning Board agenda: http://orangecountync.gov/planning/documents/4.2.14PBPacketWeb.pdf). Because a text amendment to the Joint Planning Area Land Use Plan and Agreement is necessary in order to apply the ASE program to the Rural Buffer, this Comprehensive Plan/UDO text amendment is being proposed separately from the companion text amendment which, if adopted, would apply to the County’s planning jurisdiction that is not designated “Rural Buffer.” The required amendments to the Joint Planning Area documents were heard at the March 27, 2014 joint planning public hearing and processing the proposed amendments to the joint planning documents is underway and expected to be complete in June 2014. This topic, as it pertains to the Rural Buffer, was discussed at the November 21, 2013 Assembly of Government meeting. Meeting materials are available at: http://orangecountync.gov/occlerks/131121.pdf As required under Section 2.8.5 of the UDO, the Planning Director is required to: ‘cause an analysis to be made of the application and, based upon that analysis, prepare a recommendation for consideration by the Planning Board and the Board of County Commissioners’. The following information is offered: The Rural Buffer is a geographic area of the county, under Orange County’s planning jurisdiction, that is also part of the Joint Planning Area (JPA) Agreement which is an agreement between Orange County and the Towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro (see http://www.orangecountync.gov/planning/Documents.asp for links to JPA documents and maps). Agricultural uses are located in the Rural Buffer and “Agriculture,” as a type of use, was “folded” in to the Rural Buffer land use category in the JPA Land Use Plan when the plan was developed/adopted. The Rural Buffer is “further defined as being a low-density area consisting of single-family homes situated on large lots having a minimum size of two (2) acres.” The anticipated changes to the JPA documents will make it clear that agriculture and appropriate uses that support agriculture are allowable, or potentially allowable (in the case of utilizing a conditional zoning district), uses in the Rural Buffer. The County UDO amendments for “ASE within the Rural Buffer” cannot be considered for adoption until 169