§ 15.502. Definitions.

For purposes of this subtitle, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:

(a)

Administrator means the Director of the Department of Planning and Zoning or the Director's designee.

(b)

Agricultural endeavors means those agricultural uses that require the filing of a Schedule F for federal income tax purposes.

(c)

Agricultural use means farming and includes:

(1)

Dairying, pasturage, growing crops, bee keeping, horticulture, floriculture, orchards, plant nurseries, viticulture, silviculture, aquaculture, and animal and poultry husbandry;

(2)

The breeding, raising, training and general care of livestock for uses other than food, such as sport or show purposes;

(3)

Construction and maintenance of barns, silos and other similar structures, the use of farm machinery, the primary processing of agricultural products and the sale of agricultural products produced on the land where the sales are made; and

(4)

Other uses directly related to or as an accessory use of the premises for farming and agricultural purposes.

(d)

Agricultural land preservation program means the acquisition and stewardship of County agricultural land preservation easements and programs to support farming and agricultural endeavors. The program may be referred to as the "ALP Program".

(e)

Board means the Howard County Agricultural Preservation Board as described in section 15.503 of this subtitle. The Board may also be referred to as the "APB".

(f)

Dedication or dedicated refers to the process by which a landowner places a preservation parcel under a restrictive easement of the ALP Program.

(g)

Department means the Department of Planning and Zoning.

(h)

Development right means the right to develop the parcel for purposes other than agricultural uses. Development right includes, but is not limited to, the right to use the property for industrial or commercial uses, for residential purposes (except as set forth in this subtitle), or the storage or depositing of trash, junk, rubbish or debris.

(i)

Easement; agricultural land preservation easement means a recorded restriction on exercising the development rights on land.

(j)

Grantor means the landowner who conveyed an easement on a parcel to the County.

(k)

Landowner means the legal owner or owners of a parcel.

(l)

Preservation parcel means a parcel of land:

(1)

Which is created in a subdivision after clustering; or

(2)

That is:

(i)

The sending parcel on a density exchange option or on a cluster exchange option pursuant to the zoning regulations; and

(ii)

Subject to an agricultural land preservation easement.

(m)

Pricing formula means a formula adopted by resolution of the County Council to assign point values for various characteristics of a farm which make its preservation as agricultural land more or less valuable to the County.

(n)

Public interest use means a use which:

(1)

Does not unduly interfere with the agricultural use of property subject to an easement; and

(2)

Has been determined by the County Council to be a public interest use.

(o)

Tenant housing means housing for workers fully engaged in operation of the agricultural use and their families.

(C.B. 10, 1993; C.B. 19, 2006, § 1; C.B. 63, 2018, § 1)