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ANALYSIS • Land Use Conflicts in Agricultural Areas In 1990, Indian River County adopted its present comprehensive plan which, among other items, established the County's Urban Service Area and the associated Urban Service Area Boundary. As adopted, the Urban Service Area (USA) constitutes that area of the county where "urban" commercial, industrial, and residential uses are allowed and where urban services such as public water and sewer are provided to serve development. Conversely, the areas lying outside the USA (which are vast and cover roughly the western two-thirds of the county) are designated Conservation or Agricultural and are generally intended to be rural in nature with agricultural, conservation, and low density residential uses allowed. Agricultural areas are designated on the adopted future land use map as AG -1 (up to 1 unit/5 acres), AG -2 (up to 1 unit/10 acres), and AG -3 (up to 1 unit per 20 acres); those designations have corresponding zoning districts A-1, A-2, and A-3. Generally, AG -1/A-1 areas lie east of I-95 and within the Fellsmere Farms platted area that surrounds the original Town of Fellsmere, although a number of "remnant" A-1 properties still exist inside the Urban Service Area. AG -2/A-2 areas generally lie west of I-95 and east of the St. Johns marsh, while AG -3/A-3 areas generally lie west of the St. Johns marsh. Although agriculturally designated areas are generally restricted to agricultural and associated accessory uses, and low density residential uses, the county's comprehensive plan and land development regulations (LDRs) allow certain types of commercial or industrial uses on agriculturally designated properties under certain conditions and criteria. Those uses are subject to special conditions and specific land use criteria and are reviewed and approved through the administrative permit or special exception processes. Currently, the "conditional uses" allowed in agriculturally designated areas include churches, schools, fruit/vegetable packing houses, golf courses, commercial kennels, airstrips, solar farms, utility facilities, communications towers, recycling centers, and mining operations. Those uses are allowed in agricultural areas for various reasons. Some uses, such as packing houses, are related to agricultural production and warrant more rural locations near agricultural production. Other uses, such as golf courses, airstrips, and solar farms, require large site areas which are more available and easier to assemble in agricultural areas. Still other uses, such as recycling centers and commercial kennels can be appropriately located in certain areas outside the USA where residential density is very low and facilities can be separated from concentrations of residences by significant distances and can be more effectively buffered from adjacent properties. Finally, some uses, such as schools and churches, are institutional uses that are traditionally allowed in rural areas and are considered generally compatible with agricultural and very low density residential uses subject to conditions. Overall, many conditional uses located outside the USA serve residents and businesses located within the USA. Over the past decades, the Planning & Zoning Commission and the Board of County Commissioners have periodically discussed and evaluated land use conflicts in agricultural areas and have generally acknowledged that some conflicts are inevitable because residential uses (even low density residential) 155