Agenda 06-02-2026; 6-b - Acceptance of Updated Orange County Agricultural Viability and Farmland Stewardship Plan

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18 FINAL DRAFT-5-27-26 The high rate of farmland loss reflected in the satellite-imagery data and the Census aligns with Orange County farmer/landowner perceptions. In a 2023 Orange County Farmer and Landowner Survey conducted by the Farmland Stewardship Subcommittee, respondents overwhelmingly considered the most important threat to farming in Orange County to be farmland conversion to development (Appendix 1 for summary). They described low-density residential development, in particular, as a threat (Figure 1). Low-density residential development is characterized by few dwelling units on a large land area (low population density). Low-density residential development most often takes the form of single-family suburban homes with large lots and large green spaces between homes. Figure 1. Representative verbatim responses regarding what respondents considered the most important threat to farming to the County in the 2023 Orange County Farmer and Landowner Survey "As farmers age out and are dying, "Encroaching urban areas, "Housing development.This...leads their heirs are selling land to cash farmland/forest land being sold to to increased cost of land and out on its purchase value to developers for multi-family homes decreased value of land for developers.More housing and multi-family developments agricultural purposes.There's a lot complexes are being built on instead of being kept in farmland while we are losing our farm/forest" more money in selling the land for resources for soil,foodshed,and 5-10 acre lots than keeping it as an farms.This will create a crisis for "[D)evelopment,particularly intact farm.None of the land I see both our environment and local sprawling development that ecosystem as well as for food encourages large(Io acre) for sale around me is selling as production and water retention and lots. The county development farmland.It's simply not worth it. filtering.We need to stop policies should encourage It's subdivided into plots and houses developing every square inch of the clusters of homes leaving a county!It took me 20 years of large percent of open space are built.This leads to ecosystem working two jobs and investing to rather than making it easy to deterioration which decreases the scrape together a down payment for develop io acre lots,S acre quality of farmland as well.I'm in my small little farm.It should not lots. The problems of sprawl be like this.There needs to be more in our county are the far northern reaches of the done to save our farmland and COMPLETELY predictable county....This is not isolated counteract incentives to sell to based on the policies in place towards the southern more urban developers." currently." parts of the county.„ American Farmland Trust projections show that, if historical trends in farmland conversion from 2001 to 2016 hold true through 2040 in a Business as Usual scenario, Orange County will lose an additional 14,300 acres of farmland to development (Hunter, 2022; American Farmland Trust, 2022). In a Runaway Sprawl scenario, Orange County is projected to lose an additional 19,900 acres to development (Figure 2) in the absence of effective farmland protection policies. Most of that farmland conversion---70% of it through 2040---is predicted to occur on the County's most productive prime farmland—the land that is easiest to develop due to its relatively level topography and soils that are suitable for septic. 16