2010-252A (17) - Laserfiche WebLink

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Residential Development in Agricultural Areas Within the county, a serious threat to agriculture is the encroachment of residential development into agricultural areas. Not only does residential development exert pressure on agricultural land owners to convert their agricultural land into residential use, but residential development is also often incompatible with agriculture. Typical agricultural practices (e.g., aerial spraying) are often considered to be a nuisance to residential owners. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of large -lot residential development in agricultural areas. One way in which the county has encouraged residential development in agricultural areas is by allowing affidavit of exemption (AOE) projects. Because AOE's are exempt from most required subdivision improvements (e.g. paved roads, drainage, buffers), those projects have been less expensive to build than traditional subdivision projects. Since 1998, affidavit of exemption projects and agricultural planned developments have been responsible for converting approximately 1,607 acres of agriculturally designated land to residential use. As is the case with all areas designated for agricultural use, such land is located outside the urban service area. Even at low densities, such residential development represents a blurring of the county's urban service boundary, one of the county's primary tools for controlling sprawl. In the future, it will be important for the county to preserve agriculture and to limit the encroachment of urban uses into agricultural areas. To protect existing agricultural uses, the county's development regulations should not further accelerate the conversion of agriculturally - designated land into residential ranchettes. For that reason, the county's policy should be to limit affidavits of exemption to small projects consisting of no more than 19 lots. All other residential development in agricultural areas should be limited to agricultural planned developments or subdivisions. An important aspect of planned developments in agricultural areas is the preservation of open space for either agricultural, conservation, or recreational uses. To preserve the rural ambience of agricultural PD's and because open space areas also function as wildlife corridors, the county should require that open space within agricultural PD's be located in contiguous areas. Agricultural Preservation Because of the combination of development pressure and citrus disease, citrus grove owners are and will continue to face pressure to convert their land to alternative uses, thereby permanently removing land from agricultural production. With the decline in the citrus industry, farmers will need to evaluate the land dedicated to citrus and consider other allowed uses for citrus property. This might include water farming, growing new types of crops for producing biofuels, or developing solar farms. Future Land Use Element 109