Agenda - 10-21-2008 - 3b - Laserfiche WebLink

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ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: October 21, 2008 Action Agenda Item No. ~-6 SUBJECT: Voluntary Agricultural District Designation: McAdams Farm DEPARTMENT: Environment and Resource PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No Conservation ATTACHMENT(S): 1) Application 2) ERCD Staff Memo, Vicinity Map 3) Certification from NRCS & Soils Maps 4) Certification from Tax Supervisor 5) Memo to Agricultural Preservation Board INFORMATION CONTACT: David Stancil, ERC Director, 245-2590 PURPOSE: To consider an application from Howard H. McAdams, Jr., for certification as qualifying farmland within the High Rock/Efland Voluntary Agricultural District. BACKGROUND: Howard H. McAdams, Jr., owner of the McAdams Farm located along both sides of Efland-Cedar Grove Road in Cheeks Township, has submitted an application to have three adjacent farm tracts designated as a certified qualifying farm for the High Rock/Efland Voluntary Agricultural District. Together the parcels total 191.4 acres. The County's adopted Voluntary Farmland Protection Ordinance (VFPO) outlines a procedure for the Agricultural Preservation Board to review and approve applications for qualifying farmland, and make recommendations to the Board of Commissioners concerning the establishment and modification of agricultural districts. Section VII of the VFPO contains the requirements for inclusion in a voluntary agricultural district. To be certified as qualifying farmland, a farm must: 1. Consist of a minimum of 20 contiguous acres; 2. Be participating in the farm present-use-value taxation program established by N.C.G.S. §105-277.2 through §105-277.7, or is otherwise determined by the county to meet all the qualifications of this program set forth in G.S. 105-277.3; 3. Be certified by the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the United States Department of Agriculture as being a farm on which at least two-thirds of the. land is composed of soils that: a. Are best suited for providing food, seed, fiber, forage, timber, forestry products, horticultural crops and oil seed crops; b. Have good soil qualities;