<div class="chunk-title">Sec. 6-24. - Certification and qualification of farmland.</div>
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               To secure county certification as qualifying farmland, a farm must meet the following
               criteria:
               
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                  (1)
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                  Be participating in the farm present-use-value taxation program established by G.S.
                  105-277.2 through 105-277.7, or is otherwise determined by the county to meet all
                  the qualifications of this program set forth in G.S. 105-277.3;
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                  (2)
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                  Be certified by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (formerly the Soil Conservation
                  Service) of the United States Department of Agriculture as being a farm on which at
                  least two-thirds of the land is composed of soils that:
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                  a.
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                  Are best suited for providing food, seed, fiber, forage, timber, forestry products,
                  horticultural crops and oil seed crops;
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                  b.
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                  Have good soil qualities;
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                  c.
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                  Are favorable for all major crops common to the county where the land is located;
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                  d.
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                  Receive the available moisture needed to produce high yields for an average of eight
                  out of ten years; and
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                  e.
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                  Have been actively used in agricultural, horticultural or forestry operations as defined
                  by G.S. 105-277.2(1)â€”(3) during each of the five previous years, measured from the
                  date on which the determination must be made as to whether the land in question qualifies;
                  </p>
               		
               
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                  (3)
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                  Be managed, if highly erodible land exists on the farm, in accordance with the Natural
                  Resources Conservation Service defined erosion-control practices that are addressed
                  to said highly-erodible land; and
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                  (4)
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                  Be the subject of a conservation agreement, as defined in G.S. 121-35, between the
                  county and the owner of such land that prohibits non-farm use or development of such
                  land for a period of at least ten years, except for the creation of not more than
                  three lots that meet applicable county zoning and subdivision regulations.
                  </p>
               		
               
            <p class="historynote0">
               (Ord. of 8-3-2004, art. VII)
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