2025-051-E-Economic Dev-Ever Laughter Farm-AG Economic Development Grant

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OCEDaedga 1-25 Exhibit A Guidelines ORANGE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT GRANT PROGRAM GUIDELINES This program is intended to provide assistance to Orange County farmers in developing new sources of agricultural income through the provision of grants. Individual grant limit is $10,000. Farmer applicants must be able to demonstrate that their existing operation is a verifiable farm business meeting the following requirements: • Land - owned or leased by applicant in Orange County • Infrastructure - suitable for existing operation and any required expansion • Market - defined, accessible, with history of sales • Experience - knowledge, ability, and demonstrated relevant experience • Concept – demonstrates a valid need and specific request Or, in the case of a newly developing farm enterprise, the applicant must be able to demonstrate the following requirements: • Land - owned or leased by applicant in Orange County • Infrastructure - suitable for proposed project (site, etc.) • Market – researched, defined, and accessible • Experience - knowledge and ability relative to the proposed project • Concept – demonstrates a valid need and specific request Eligibility • The farm tract and farming operation on which the funds are to be used must be in Orange County in areas zoned appropriately for their use. • Collaborative/Group grants must include at least 3 farmers and may include agricultural groups and agencies. • Applicants and their businesses must not have any past due tax, fee, or fine applicable to Orange County. The Orange County Tax Office will review and follow-up with businesses that are found to have outstanding taxes and apply to the grant program. Applicants are responsible for annually completing and submitting a business personal property listing form to the Orange County Tax Office by January 31st each year. Additional information on this process can be located at the following page: https://www.orangecountync.gov/1783/Business-Personal-Property. • Applicant must be current with any existing Orange County Small Business Loan, or Emergency Small Business Loan Payments. • Duplication of benefits prohibited. No individual business or affiliated owner(s) shall receive in excess of $10,000 from Orange County’s Small Business and Large Business Investment Grant Programs, the Agriculture Grant Program, and any other County grant awards over a three year period. Some individual programs may have more stringent restrictions in an effort to spread the funding across as many individual operations as possible. This prohibition includes a situation in which the same owner(s) owns multiple businesses. In such a situation if one or more of the multiple businesses applied for a grant(s) the maximum available to any one or more of such businesses is $10,000. • Individuals who have taken legal action against the County in the past 12-months, or have an active legal case, and who applies for any available County grant program, are ineligible to apply for and Docusign Envelope ID: 825D061D-172F-4A14-BA25-B89D53C9A138