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5 <br /> <br />a. Voluntary and Enhanced Agricultural District Designation – Multiple Farms <br />The Board considered voting to approve applications from seven (7) landowners/farms <br />to certify qualifying farmland within the Caldwell, Cedar Grove, High Rock/Efland, Schley/Eno, <br />Cane Creek/Buckhorn, and White Cross Voluntary Agricultural Districts; and enroll the lands in <br />the Orange County Farmland Preservation Voluntary and Enhanced Voluntary Agricultural <br />District programs. <br /> <br />Gail Hughes, Soil Conservationist, presented this item: <br /> <br />BACKGROUND: Orange County’s Voluntary Farmland Preservation Program was started in <br />1992. To date, there are 114 farms in both the Voluntary Agricultural District (VAD) and the <br />Enhanced Voluntary Agricultural District (EVAD) program, totaling 15,059 acres. <br /> <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 /> <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 land <br />is composed of soils that are best suited for providing food, seed, fiber, forage, timber, <br />forestry products, horticultural crops and oil seed crops; <br />d) Be managed in accordance with the Natural Resources Conservation Service and NC <br />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. §121- <br />35, between the County and the owner that prohibits non-farm use or development of <br />such land for a period of at least ten years, except for the creation of not more than <br />three lots that meet applicable County zoning and subdivision regulations. <br /> <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 September and November 2019 meetings. All farm applications were reviewed <br />and verified to have met or exceeded the minimum criteria for certification into the program. <br /> <br />The Agricultural Preservation Board voted unanimously to recommend approval of the <br />certification for seven (7) farms, and their inclusion in the Voluntary and/or the Enhanced <br />Voluntary Agricultural District program. The certification documentation is on file in the <br />DEAPR/Soil and Water Conservation District office. The farms are described briefly below: <br /> <br />Brief Farm Descriptions: <br />1) Owner Richard Jude Samulski (Scuppernong Estates LLC/ Eno River Farm) has <br />submitted an application to enroll one (1) parcel of land totaling 178.18 acres as <br />qualifying farmland for the Voluntary Agricultural District program (VAD) in the <br />Schley/Eno Agricultural District. The farm operation includes strawberries and blueberry <br />production, hay land and managed woodland. Since 1992, a 150-acre portion of the