Ag rule will protect county farmland

Separate from the existing planning and zoning commission, members of the APA board must be “actively employed by or supporting production agriculture in the county.” 

 That includes “representatives from the local soil and water conservation district board of supervisors, the local cattlemen’s association board, the county farm bureau board, an irrigation district or water users association board, or a grower/commodity association or commission board.”

 Even though most of the leg work for the new ordinance is complete in the AIC template, it appears each county is expected to determine its own local process for approving agricultural protection areas for a minimum of 20 years. Counties will establish their own application requirements; clear and objective standards for evaluating applications; the timeline for reviewing and making decisions on applications; and establishing an application fee.

 During the Oct. 28 commission meeting, Walker asked the commissioners if they had begun working toward selecting an APA board. At the same time, Walker advised them to complete the ordinance and have the new board set simultaneously to meet the Jan. 1 deadline.

 “I don’t know if you just want to appoint people or see if there’s a list of people that they want you to draw from,” Walker said. “So, you need to choose no less than three and no more than five. And, that might be just as challenging as getting the ordinance in place.”

 Commissioner Nate Marvin said Cambridge area rancher Royce Schwenkfelder has expressed interest in being on the new board. As well, the county commissioners seem to agree on staggered terms for members of the new advisory board.

 In this week’s meeting, Nov. 4, the county commissioners determined there will be a single public hearing on the APA ordinance before it becomes an official part of the county’s zoning chapter, with that date to be decided over the next few weeks.  Watch the Signal American’s legal publications pages for a notice regarding the public hearing.

 Originating out of Washington County’s Farm Bureau, the new APA state law might be loosely based on the premise of the nonprofit American Farmland Trust (AFT) or USDA’s agricultural conservation easements through the Natural Resource Conservation Service, among other programs that have been in place for several decades. Currently, Idaho’s new law doesn’t come with any built-in financial incentives for farmers and ranchers. 

 According to AFT’s Protected Agricultural Lands Database, there are currently seven million permanently protected agricultural acres nationwide, including an even dozen properties in Idaho totaling, more or less, 165,000 acres. In January, 2024, 29 states had state level purchase of agricultural conservation easement (PACE) programs, the earliest dating back into the late 1970s.