AR25-054 Staff Decision - Laserfiche WebLink

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conjunction with a commercial dairy farm, or other otherwise. In this case, the applicant seeks to qualify for a primary farm dwelling through MCC 17.137.030(A)(1): A. Primary Farm Dwellings. A single-family dwelling customarily provided in conjunction with farm use. The dwelling will be considered customarily provided in conjunction with farm use when: 1. It is located on high-value farmland, as defined in MCC 17.137.130(D), and satisfies the following standards: a. There is no dwelling on the subject farm operation on lands zoned EFU, SA, or FT other than seasonal farm worker housing. The term “farm operation” means all lots of parcels of land in the same ownership that are used by the farm operator for farm use; The subject property is owned by the Jeffrey J & Linda M Butsch Living Trust (henceforth referred to as “the Trust”). A search of all properties in Marion County owned by this entity found that the trust owns 4 tax accounts within Marion County, including the subject property. The 3 other tax accounts are located kitty corner to the southwest of the subject property. None of these parcels contain any buildings, let alone any dwellings. While the farming operation of 4B Farms Inc does own one other parcel with an existing dwelling, the parcels under the legally distinct ownership of the Trust do not contain dwellings. Therefore, the criterion is met. b. The farm operator earned on the subject tract in the last two years, three of the last five years, or the average of the best three of the last five years at least $80,000 in gross annual income from the sale of farm products, not including marijuana. In determining gross annual income from the sale of farm products, the cost of purchased livestock shall be deducted from the total gross income attributed to the tract. Only gross income from land owned, not leased or rented, shall be counted; OAR 660-033-0135(4) states: The applicant shall submit to the local government an IRS tax return transcript and any other information the local jurisdiction may require that demonstrates compliance with the gross farm income requirement. A review of the ownership history for the parcel found that the Trust came into possession of the parcel on December 20th, 2016, proving the applicant was the legal property owner during the time the income was generated. The applicant provided the 2023 and 2024 tax documentation for 4B Farms Inc. They farm a significant amount of ground owned by different property owners from the Trust. To separate the income generated from the subject parcel the applicants provided copies of their official acreage reports from the Marion and Polk County Farm Service Agency—which are official crop reports done on an annual basis—as well as a breakdown of gross sales from the crops grown on the subject parcel. In their breakdown, the applicants show they produced creeping bentgrass and Italian garlic in 2023 and in 2024 they produced more creeping bentgrass, squash (for seed), and wheat. The breakdown of the revenue in 2023 was $164,146 from the farm commodities. In 2024 the total revenue was $83,184 from farm commodities. The tax records also show Jeffrey Butsch as president of 4B Farms Inc, proving that the property owner is part of the entity that produced the income. Therefore, the applicants have demonstrated sufficiently that they have generated the required $80,000 for properties with high value farm soils. The criterion is met. c. The subject tract is currently employed for the farm use that produced the income required in subsection (A)(1)(b) of this section; The parcels claimed to have generated the income are still visibly in use as commercial farm fields. The criterion is met.