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permitted associated uses are exempt from building permit requirements but are not exempt from zoning setback and any applicable floodplain regulations. As a voluntary process to confirm compliance with the exemption, staff strongly encourages property owners who claim the exemption to file a Verification of Exemption for Non-residential Farm Building local form (see attachment 2). Persons submitting the form attach a site sketch showing the lay -out of uses and facilities; the sketch is not a formal site plan. Such a form was filed for the Caribbean Lawn and Landscaping business. Since the March 5th meeting, no acknowledgement form for any new nursery/landscaping service business has been filed. In practice, facilities serving agricultural operations may also serve associated permitted accessory uses. For example, a workshop/garage can serve wholesale nursery production, maintenance, delivery, and vehicles and equipment that serve off-site landscaping services operations. In staff's experience, it would be difficult to try to separate -out portions of a facility that serve a nursery use from what serves an accessary landscaping services use. Staff's interpretation of the previously quoted 911.06(4) use table provisions is that an off-site landscaping service is allowed as an "accessory use" to a wholesale plant nursery. Under LDR Chapter 901, an "accessory use" is defined as: "Accessory use a use which: (a) Is clearly incidental to, customarily found in association with, and serves a principal use; (b) Is subordinate in purpose, area, and extent to the principal use served; and (c) Is located on the same lot as the principal use, or on an adjoining lot in the same ownership as that of the principal use." Staff's interpretation of "accessory use" as applied to off-site landscaping services associated with a wholesale nursery is that such use is limited to installation and maintenance mowing/trimming of landscaping material and must cover less site area than the nursery area. Under that interpretation, for example, the site area of the landscaping services operation (total parking, driveway, and building area) must be less than the nursery area (area under cultivation including green houses, grow houses, shade houses, and similar structures). Consequently, under the current interpretation, a landscaping services area to nursery area ratio of slightly less that 1:1 would comply. Based on discussion at the March 5th meeting, it is staffs understanding that Board members believe that a lower ratio of landscaping services area to nursery area would more appropriately reflect the "incidental to" and "customarily found in association with" characteristics of an accessory landscaping services use. Staffs research of existing landscaping services in the County, and the proposed draft ordinance, address site area ratio which is a valid tool for evaluating an appropriate scale for both uses. Staff's current interpretation, supported by Code Enforcement Board action, is that the wholesale nursery use, as the principal agricultural use, is required to be established prior to or at the same time as the landscaping services use and that the landscaping services use cannot involve burying, mulching, or burning off-site debris on the premises. It is also staffs current interpretation that pest control services are not accessory to a wholesale nursery use and are not allowed. These aspects of staff's current interpretation are incorporated into the proposed draft ordinance to clarify andcodify those interpretations. — Small-scale home -occupation landscaping services 157