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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAPB Minutes 111517 Attachment 1 Orange County Agricultural Preservation Board Meeting Summary: November 15, 2017 Environmental & Agricultural Center—Conference Room 306 Revere Rd., Hillsborough, NC 7:30 p.m. Members Present: Anderson, Compton, Dawson, Finley, McAdams, Vanhook, R. Parker, Redding, Saiers, Shambley Members Absent: McPherson, Thomas-Ambat, Ranells, A. Parker Guests: Abigale Bethune, visiting as a graduate student in environmental policy; Bob Marotto, Director of Orange County Animal Services; Maureane Hoffman, member of Animal Services Advisory Board. Staff: Gail Hughes, Resource Conservation Coordinator-DEAPR-Orange Soil and Water; Peter Sandbeck, Cultural Resources Coordinator; Mike Ortosky, Ag Economic Development Coordinator 1. Call to order: Vice Chair Redding called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. 2. Chair Comments/Introductions: Ms. Bethune gave a brief outline of her graduate studies. 3. Considerations of Additions to Agenda: Hughes asked to add a discussion about an Orange County Quilt Trail project. 4. Meeting Summary/Minutes: May 17th, 2017 (Attachment 1): Dawson moved to accept the minutes/summary; seconded by Compton; motion carried. 5. Items for Decision: a) New VAD/EVAD Applications (Attachment 2): Hughes presented the current applications listed below. All of these farms meet the requirements/criteria for VAD/EVAD enrollment. She handed out copies of the new VAD/EVAD map showing current and proposed farms.  Geoffrey and Jane Gledhill: 29.61 acres for EVAD, Cedar Grove Ag District. The farm is in managed forestry and also is protected by a permanent conservation easement . Finley moved to approve, seconded by Shambley; motion carried.  Andy and Debra Gates: 111.01 acres for VAD, Caldwell Ag District. The farm is in grains, soybeans, pasture, hayland and beef cattle. Vanhook moved to approve the farm for VAD, seconded by Compton; motion carried.  Robert Kirk and Michael Kirk: 84.09 acres for VAD, Cane Creek-Buckhorn Ag District. The farm is in beef cattle, hogs, chickens, hayland, vegetables and managed woodland. Saiers moved to approve the farm for VAD, seconded by R. Parker; motion carried. 2 Update/amendment to existing VAD/EVAD:  Nels and Nancy Anderson: upgrade from VAD to EVAD, plus added adding 1.44 acres to their existing enrollment. This brings their total acreage to 59.86. The farm is in beef cattle, pasture, hayland and managed woodland. Vanhook moved to approve the amendment with additional acreage; seconded by McAdams; motion carried. Hughes reported that this will bring us up to 12,554 acres in VAD. She will present these to the BOCC in December, along with farms the APB has approved since July, 2017. b) Approval of proposed meeting calendar: Sandbeck explained that members must approve their proposed calendar for the coming year f or the County Clerk to post online. Compton moved to approve the draft calendar; seconded by Shambley; motion carried. 6. Items for Discussion: a) Feedback for Lands Legacy Action Plan: Staff reported on work by Kim Livingston, the County’s new Land Conservation Manager, as she finishes up work on the action plan for 2017-2020. This is the final chance for members to have input. Members discussed the comments made by this board for the 2013 to 2017 plan. There was interest in having this program work in tandem with other related things, like the Mountains to Sea Trail. For example, can we identify prime farmland that might benefit the trail project? Kim has a long list of people interested in working with the county on conservation easements, many more than can be funded. It is appropriate for this board to recommend that this program place a special priority on protecting prime active farmland and/or working farms. The wording should be stronger: “Prioritize working with farms…” Saiers moved to adjust the wording, seconded by Dawson; motion carried. Staff will share with Kim. b) Annual Report and Work Plan updates: Staff provided a brief overview of the updates included so far in the handout. Discussion followed. There is an organization called NC Farm Link, which operates a web site to link up new farmers with retiring farmers. Orange County has been maintaining a similar web site. There is an ongoing challenge in connecting these parties due to the complexity of the legal/land ownership transfer issues and the high cost of land. Part of the issue is having better data on farming in the county. There is a need for an updated sort of “ag census” to make it possible to get a handle on what is being raised, how much acreage is being used for what etc. to allow us t o plan for the future. Members believe that more land will be sold out of farming in the future based on present trends. There is some interest in exploring the possibility of an ag support listserv. c) Update on “Working Cats” program: Guests Bob Marotto and Maureane Hoffman provided a presentation highlighting how Animal Services is promoting the concept of working with farmers to find more homes for stray cats and help get more farm cats spayed or neutered, and vaccinated. They continue to get a huge influx of new cats and kittens every spring. 3 They have had some successes helping farm owners trap and spay/neuter their cats, and have placed some cats in rural settings. They provided an updated handout describing the program. As part of this effort, they are microchipping the cats so that they can better track them. They have 180 cats right now and more keep arriving. They hope this effort will reduce the overall population. Good publicity will help promote the program. d) Membership: Hughes continued to seek qualified new applicants. Thanks to her efforts we have one: Portia McKnight of Chapel Hill Creamery. Her farm is in the Cane Creek VAD vacated by the retirement of Gordon Neville. Shambley moved to recommend Ms. McKnight to the BOCC, seconded by Vanhook; motion passed. Staff will submit a letter to the County Clerk, probably for the first BOCC meeting in January. 7. Informational Items/Future Agenda Items: a) Updates on Ag Economic Development: Ortosky reported that the Ag grant program is funded at $60,000 per year now. In over two years, this program has received 57 applications and awarded 39 grants totaling over $300,000. . A new grant cycle starts after July 1, 2018. He hopes funding and increase to $100,000 per year. PFAP has about 60 tenants, almost breaking even now. They got an ADFP grant of $32,500 to help provide short term loans to PFAP producers. Weaver Street is matching that. The County applied for a Golden Leaf grant to support the PFAP cold products operations. There is a lot of activity for promoting regional food systems, especially in Wake County; TLC owns a farm in Shotwell where Wake County is funding a program to get small farmers there working that land. County is still working on lease with NC State. The state has clarified the definiti on of a bona fide farm to limit this classification to those farms that are making money/selling items. The County budget included funds to promote GAP training and auditing education programs to help make it possible for the county schools to purchase fro m local farmers. b) Planning for APB Breakfast 2017: Hughes reported that the breakfast will be held on Nov. 30 at the Cedar Grove Community Center. Kelsey’s will be catering again. So far there are 44 registrants. The program will be shorter, from 8 to 10. c) Possible Orange County Quilt Trail: Hughes discussed the idea of a quilt trail projects. Randolph County has had successful one for 6 years, now with a phone app to guide you. Person County also has a trail. Tourism grants have helped fund these. The Grange is willing to support, as are Extension and the Soil and Water Board. This could connect with Randolph and Chatham counties. Members agreed to support this by acclamation. 8. Information Sharing: None 9. Adjournment: Meeting adjourned at 9:05 pm.