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related to the fact that the affidavit of exemption process allows for creation of parcels that will not have paved road access. Another concern was that the affidavit of exemption regulations allow staff -level approval of up to 49 parcels covering 245 or more acres without formal infrastructure and without PZC or Board oversight. As a result of those concerns the Board adopted LDR changes which do NOT allow affidavits of exemption in agiiculturally designated areas (see attachment #1). Therefore. the current regulations allow agriculturally designated lands to he divided through the agricultural planned development (PD) process or the conventional subdivision process, but not through the affida%it of exemption process. After the October 23`d meeting, the Board decided to revisit the issue of affidavits of exemption on agricultural lands, and directed staff to analyze the affidavit of exemption process and report back to the Board with recommendations. Staff presented detailed affidavit of exemption information and analysis to the Board at its January 22, 2002 meeting (see attachment #2), at which time the Board directed staff to initiate changes to the affidavit of exemption regulations. Said changes are to allow affidavits of exemption in agricultural areas, with some consideration of limiting the number of parcels created through that process (see attachment #3). As directed by the Board, staff has now drafted changes to the affidavit of exemption regulations Those changes were reviewed by the PSAC at its February 21, 2002 meeting. At that meeting, the PSAC voted 5-0 to recommend that the Board adopt the affidavit of exemption LDR amendment as proposed and recommended by staff (see attachment #5). At its March 14, 2002 meeting the PZC voted 5-1 to recommend that the Board adopt the proposed changes (see attachment #7). The Board is now to consider the new proposed changes and is to adopt, adopt with changes, or not adopt the proposed amendments. ANALYSIS For the reasons outlined in staff's January report to the Board (see attachment #2), staff's position is that affidavits of exemption are appropriate on agriculturally designated lands, given the county s current comprehensive plan policies and staffs experience with such developments. That experience indicates that affidavit of exemption "projects", both inside and outside the Urban Service Area, are small (1-11 parcels) and that the current 49 lot limit on the affidavit of exemption process far exceeds customary proposals. Therefore, it appears that significantly reducing the current 49 parcel Emit to less than 20 parcels would have no effect on customary proposals. In fact, scaling back the limit would ensure that larger projects are reviewed by the PZC and/or the Board (via the agricultural PD or conventional subdivision process) and would ensure that infrastructure improvements, such as paved roads which are not required via the affidavit of exemption process, would be required and provided for such larger projects involving 20 or more parcels. Rased on this analysis, staff has structured the proposed ordinance to set a 19 parcel limit on affidavits of exemption, whether located inside or outside the Urban Service Area. In staffs opinion. a 19 parcel limit is logical based upon the existing LDR threshold level for paving requirements in agricultural areas (areas outside the Urban Service krea) Those requirements are contained in LDR section 954.10(3) (see attachment 44). Under section 954.10(3), projects that generate more than 200 average daily trips and are located in agricultural areas must provide paved parking and driveway areas; projects below that threshold are not required to provide paved improvements. The "more than April 9, 2002 34