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Show Master plan approved for development of county Ag area By CHERIE HUBER A master plan for the development develop-ment of the Davis County Agriculture Agricul-ture Area was adopted after a public pub-lic hearing at the monthly meeting of the Davis County Planning Board. . - , Only one member of the public was present as the policy was adopted. The policy marks the culmination cul-mination of an ongoing effort which' began in 1953. It has taken three years to put the policy in written form. The purpose of the policy is to allow orderly development of the remaining agriculture land in the county. When developments move into areas that were formerly used only for agriculture purposes, road usage changes, and homeowners and farmers can come into conflict over irrigation ditches, animals, ' -. and other matters. The policies are largely a result of : work done by the Davis County 1 Agriculture Committee of 1986. , The committee feels that an agriculture agricul-ture preservation effort would be an unrealistic way of managing the problem of development in the Davis County agriculture area. Therefore, the basic premise of the new policy is that development of the remaining Davis County agriculture agri-culture areas will occur but should be planned for to make an easy transition from rural to urban uses of the land. At the same time those fanners who wish to continue farming farm-ing should be allowed to do so as long as they wish to continue and their systems should be protected. The major policy of the Agriculture Agricul-ture Master Plan is to allow moderate moder-ate development in the unincorporated unincorpo-rated agriculture area but at the same time to provide protection against conflicts with urban uses for continuing farms. To support this policy, many supporting policies have been developed. de-veloped. These policies include requirements re-quirements to protect irrigation systems, maintain field drains, and establish fencing between subdivisions subdivi-sions and farm areas. The plan says that soils and their value for agriculture purposes should not be a factor in determining determin-ing the appropriateness of development. develop-ment. Also, federally designated wetlands should not be of concern '..jo'the county .but the developer : ' should be referred to the Army Corps of Engineers. The Committee strongly supports sup-ports the West Davis Highway as a limited access facility and in addition addi-tion will require setbacks for road development even when only one lot is developed. Also included in the plan is a statement that the County should adopt regulations which require annexation of development of 15 units or more to nearby cities. Any development adjacent to a city should be required to annex. |