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12 <br /> The Board considered applications from six (6) landowners/farms to certify qualifying <br /> farmland within the Caldwell, Cedar Grove, High Rock/Efland, and Cane Creek/Buckhorn <br /> Voluntary Agricultural Districts; and vote to enroll the lands in the Orange County Farmland <br /> Preservation Voluntary and Enhanced Voluntary Agricultural District programs. <br /> Gail Hughes, Soil Conservationist, and Commissioner McKee will recuse themselves <br /> when talking about the McKee Farm. <br /> BACKGROUND: Orange County's Voluntary Farmland Preservation Program started in 1992. <br /> There are 109 farms in both the Voluntary Agricultural District (VAD) and the Enhanced <br /> Voluntary Agricultural District (EVAD) program totaling 14,303* acres as of December 2018. <br /> The County's Voluntary Farmland Protection Ordinance (VFPO) outlines a procedure for the <br /> Agricultural Preservation Board to review and approve applications for qualifying farmland, and <br /> to make recommendations to the Board of Commissioners concerning the establishment and <br /> modification of agricultural districts. Section VII of the VFPO contains the requirements for <br /> inclusion in a voluntary agricultural district. To be certified as qualifying farmland, a farm must: <br /> a) Be located in the unincorporated area of Orange County; <br /> b) Be engaged in Agriculture as that word is defined in NC GS 106-581.1 <br /> c) 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 are best suited for providing food, seed, fiber, forage, <br /> timber, forestry products, horticultural crops and oil seed crops; <br /> d) Be managed in accordance with the Natural Resources Conservation Service and <br /> NC Soil and Water Conservation Service defined erosion-control practices that are <br /> addressed to said highly-erodible land; and have a current conservation farm plan <br /> and/or forestry management plan associated with the current usages and owner; <br /> e) Be the subject of a non-binding conservation agreement, as defined in N.C.G.S. <br /> §121-35, between the County and the owner that prohibits non-farm use or <br /> development of such land for a period of at least ten years, except for the creation of <br /> not more than three lots that meet applicable County zoning and subdivision <br /> regulations. <br /> The Orange County Agricultural Preservation Board reviewed the findings of the staff <br /> assessments for the attached applications for the Orange County Voluntary Agricultural District <br /> program at the March and May 2019 meetings. All farm applications were reviewed and verified <br /> to have met or exceeded the minimum criteria for certification into the program. <br /> The Agricultural Preservation Board voted unanimously to recommend approval of the <br /> certification for six (6) farms and their inclusion in the Voluntary and/or the Enhanced Voluntary <br /> Agricultural District program. The certification documentation is on file in the DEAPR/Soil and <br /> Water Conservation District office. The farms are described briefly below: <br /> Brief Farm Descriptions: <br /> 1) Owners, Lynn and Teresa Holloway, and Alene Holloway, have submitted an application <br /> to enroll three (3) parcels of land totaling 122.05 acres as qualifying farmland for the <br /> Voluntary Agricultural District program (VAD) in the Cedar Grove Agricultural District. <br /> The farm operation includes tobacco, small grains, and managed woodland. The farm <br /> has been evaluated against each of the VAD certification requirement standards and <br /> meets or exceeds all of the measures above. <br /> 2) Owners, Howard and Karen McAdams (McAdams Farm), have submitted an application <br /> to enroll one (1) of parcel of land totaling 22.68 acres as qualifying farmland for the <br />