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1 <br /> ORANGE COUNTY <br /> BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br /> ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br /> Meeting Date: April 17, 2012 <br /> Action Agenda <br /> Item No. 5 - <br /> SUBJECT: Enhanced Voluntary Agricultural District Designation: McPherson Farm <br /> DEPARTMENT: Environment, Agriculture, PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br /> Parks and Recreation <br /> ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACTS: <br /> 1) Application <br /> 2) Brochure -VAD and EVAD Designation David Stancil, 245-2510 <br /> 3) DEAPR Staff Memo & Vicinity Map Rich Shaw, 245-2514 <br /> 4) Certification from NRCS, Soil Analysis <br /> Chart & Map <br /> 5) Certification from Tax Supervisor <br /> 6) Draft APB Minutes January 18, 2012 <br /> 7) Pictures of McPherson Farm <br /> PURPOSE: To consider an application from the McPherson family to certify its farm as <br /> qualifying farmland within the Cane Creek/Buckhorn voluntary agricultural district, and <br /> designate it as an Enhanced Voluntary Agricultural District. <br /> BACKGROUND: Owners of the McPherson Family Farm on Mebane-Oaks Road have <br /> submitted an application to enroll their farm as the County's first Enhanced Voluntary <br /> Agricultural District (EVAD) farm. The McPherson Farm seeks to enroll 46.5 acres of the farm in <br /> this program. This farm and landowners previously conveyed an agricultural conservation <br /> easement to Orange County and the Orange Water & Sewer Authority (OWASA) for this <br /> property in 2005. <br /> As the Board may recall, Orange County has had a Voluntary Farmland Preservation Program <br /> since 1992, and to date 16 farms have enrolled in the Voluntary Agricultural District (VAD) <br /> program totaling 2,958 acres within the seven districts comprising the non-urban portions of the <br /> County. <br /> In recent years, new legislation was approved by the N.C. General Assembly providing for the <br /> creation of Enhanced Voluntary Agricultural Districts (EVAD). (A brochure with a table <br /> explaining the differences between VAD's and EVAD's is attached.) EVAD's follow much the <br /> same process for designation as VAD's. However, in exchange for a non-revocable 10-year <br /> conservation agreement, the farm receives a number of additional benefits, including: <br /> • A higher percentage (up to 90%) of agricultural cost-share program matching funds; <br /> • Priority consideration from state agencies and programs for grants; <br /> • Suspension or waiver of any utility assessments (if the property is not connected); <br /> • The ability to receive up to 25% of gross sales from non-farm products and still retain <br /> bona fide farm exemption; and <br />