APB Meeting Summary 01182023 - Laserfiche WebLink

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2 approval, pending the receipt of the final plan. She will also make a farm visit. This process will include acreage verification. Landowners will then have 60 days to bring their farm into compliance. This will be a major undertaking for her as the only staffer, and so it will take some time to work through the various steps of creating a new process so that she can meet the program goals. Members expressed various concerns but in general felt that this was a worthwhile undertaking if it will help keep the program viable by weeding out those that don't really qualify. Members thanked Ms. Hall for her presentation. c) Farmland Preservation Subcommittee presentation and update: Saiers provided a brief update of the progress being made by the subcommittee, along with a presentation showing the overall findings and statistics generated by a survey of the farm owners who attended the VAD breakfast program. 46 farmers completed the survey, or approx. 2/3 of the farmer/landowners in attendance. The results showed pretty consistent patterns, with a majority of farmers agreeing on many of the same issues as being of highest concern on the key questions as follows, with the top answers shown in parentheses: 1) how long have you been farming? (20+years); 2) most important topics for an information session/workshop? (diversifying farm income and succession planning); 3) barriers to making a living farming? (high costs of equipment, infrastructure,farmland and labor); 4) plans for the future? (keep farming until retire,pass along to children;protect with easements).A pdf version of the survey presentation is attached to the minutes for reference. Discussion followed about how to reach beyond this group since these respondents are already enrolled in the VAD program and thus have some level of proven interest in farmland preservation. One way is to compare VAD farm parcels with PUV parcels, for example, and also compare with parcels under permanent easements. The answers to the survey provide some useful guidance for how we might approach farmland preservation, both with the VAD participants, which are "low hanging fruit" and those who are not committed at present. With land selling at $20,000 an acre, the next generation will tend to be motivated to sell. Compton shared the story of how he and his family were pushed to develop a viable succession and estate plan for their farm in a short period of time due to health concerns. Saiers also reported on her meeting with Evan Davis after the VAD breakfast; he believes that the EVAD could be a valuable carrot to move VAD farmers into easements. He noted that some counties have moved to looking at pure AG zoning, instead of the Ag/Residential we have here. d) Annual Report and Work Plan: Staff reviewed the updated draft work plan, then asked for members to review on their own, then email any suggested additions, deletions or edits to staff by Jan. 27th. Staff also asked that they look at the plans for 2023 to make sure all has been included, and to offer any thoughts to add to the "emerging issues and concerns" section. The BOCC has scheduled their work session for our report for mid-February.