Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: September 2, 2010 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. ~{- - e <br />SUBJECT: Voluntary Agricultural District Designation: Thompson's Prawn Farm <br />DEPARTMENT: Environment, Agriculture, PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br />Parks and Recreation <br />ATTACHMENT(S): <br />1) Application and Vicinity Map INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />2) Certification from Orange Soil & Water <br />Conservation/NRCS District Office, Soll David Stancil, 245-2522 <br />Analysis Map and Chart Rich Shaw, 245-2514 <br />3) Certification from Tax Supervisor <br />4) Agricultural Presentation Board May 19, <br />2010 Minutes <br />5) Draft Conservation Agreement <br />PURPOSE: To consider an application from Joe and Geraldine Thompson to certify their prawn <br />farm as qualifying farmland within the Cedar Grove Voluntary Agricultural District. <br />BACKGROUND: The Thompsons have applied to have their 57-acre farm designated as a <br />certified qualifying farm for the ,Cedar Grove Voluntary Agricultural District.. The property is <br />located along both sides of Allie Mae Road, just northwest of Carr in the western portion .of <br />Cedar Grove Township. <br />The County's Voluntary Farmland Protection Ordinance (VFPO) outlines a procedure for the <br />Agricultural Preservation Board (APB) to review and approve applications for qualifying <br />farmland, and to make recommendations to the Board of Commissioners concerning the <br />establishment and modification of agricultural districts. Section VII of the VFPO contains the <br />requirements for inclusion in a voluntary agricultural district. To be certified as qualifying <br />farmland, a farm must: <br />1. Consist of a minimum of 20 contiguous acres; <br />2. Be participating in the farm present-use-value taxation program established by <br />N.C.G.S. §•105-277.2 through §105-277.7, or is otherwise determined by the county to <br />meet all the qualifications of this program set forth in G.S. 105-277.3; <br />3. Be certified by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) of the United <br />States Department of Agriculture as being a farm on which at least two-thirds of the <br />land is composed of soils that: <br />