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(Rumors that Rappahannock will have an application for an Agricultural and Forestal District have flown around the county for the last few months. Different opinions on impact of such a district have been expressed at an AF District workshop and Rappahannock's annual Farm Bureau meeting. The News will follow progress of AF District applications in neighboring Orange County in an attempt to clarify questions surrounding the legislation.)
Virginia’s first applications for Agricultural and Forestal Districts reached the Orange County Supervisors for a decision on Monday, December 5, at a public hearing in the Orange courthouse. Passed during the final hours of last year’s General Assembly session, the legislation has raised controversy and issues of constitutionality in counties throughout the Commonwealth.
Neither controversy nor constitutional questions were resolved at Monday night’s hearing. Instead, the Orange Supervisors put off action on three district applications until their December 13 Board meeting.
According to Supervisor Chairman Lindsay Gordon, the Board wrote the Virginia Attorney General’s office over a month ago, requesting a ruling on several matters relating to AF Districts. Can forestry lands be denied preferential tax treatment in an AF District if a county’s Land Use Tax law recognizes only agricultural land as deserving a tax break? Does all property within an AF District have to be contiguous and the boundaries of the district unbroken? These questions remained unanswered at Monday’s hearing.
Orange Commonwealth Attorney Henry Carter reported that he’d received a verbal opinion on the tax question over the telephone from an assistant attorney general. According to Carter, all land—forestry or agricultural—within an
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