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Agricultural Preservation

Orange County · Agricultural Preservation Board
Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Regular meeting Farmland and open spaceAppointments and personnelComprehensive planGrants and outside funding

Agenda document Minutes Watch Meeting recap

What's on this agenda

The board's last meeting before its farmland plan goes to the county commissioners on 2 June. No items for decision; the work is reviewing new front matter added to the draft - a preface, acknowledgements and a call to action - and settling the logistics of who presents on the day.

Summarized from the published agenda. Read the agenda itself before acting on it.

Meeting recap

What happened, drawn from the records published after the meeting. Minutes

A call to action added to the front of a stewardship plan is a choice about what the document is for. The board's own testimony to the commissioners a fortnight later made the case plainly: a farmer told them adjacent land has sold at $28,500 and $62,000 an acre, that development earned him more in two years than nineteen years of farming, and that the county cannot regulate its way to preservation but can build markets and processing capacity. A plan that opens with a call to action is aimed at that.

The board is also tracking a state farmland preservation trust fund application for a new cost of community services study - the analysis that compares what farmland pays in tax against what it costs a county in services - and an update on voluntary agricultural districts, the enrolment programme that gives farmers some protection from nuisance complaints. Membership is turning over, with retirements coming and new applications in hand.

Speaking at this meeting

Orange County's own rules for public comment — check them before you rely on anything here.

Agenda items (7)

Procedural · 3Minutes approval · 1Staff or committee report · 1Appointment · 1Discussion item · 1
  1. 4 Meeting Summary/Minutes: March 18, 2026
    Procedural
    The summary from the March 18, 2026 meeting.
  2. 6.a VAD update
    Procedural Farmland and open space
    An update on the county's voluntary agricultural districts.
  3. 6.b Membership: retirements and new applications
    Minutes approval Appointments and personnel
    Upcoming retirements from the board and the applications to fill those seats.
  4. 6.c Review of new front sections added to draft Farmland Plan
    Procedural Comprehensive planFarmland and open space
    A review of the preface, acknowledgements and call to action newly added to the draft Farmland Plan.
  5. 6.d Schedule for presentation of new plan to the BOCC on June 2
    Staff or committee report Farmland and open space
    The enrolment programme that gives farmers protection from nuisance complaints and standing when public projects want their land.
  6. 7.a ADFP Trust Fund grant application for a Cost of Community Services Study
    Appointment Appointments and personnelFarmland and open spaceGrants and outside funding
    Upcoming retirements and new applications.
  7. 7.b Extension and Ag Economic Development activities
    Discussion item Comprehensive planFarmland and open space
    A preface, acknowledgements and a call to action added to the front of the draft.

Agenda changes

What moved between published versions of this agenda. Item numbers shift constantly as things are inserted, so only genuine additions and removals are listed.

Other recent meetings of this board