OHIO DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (ODA)
Office of Farmland Preservation
Seventh Funding Round
Opening February 25,
Deadline: March 23, 2008 at 5:00 p.m.

• Complete Application - Please note that any application will be deemed as incomplete and ineligible for funding if all required attachments are not submitted with the application by the above mentioned deadline.

• Farmstead Policy - ODA’s 2008 AEPP farmstead policy will permit one single-family residence per farm, to serve the needs of the protected farm, if no housing currently exists on the farm at the time of application. If housing exists on the property at the time of application, then no additional residences may be built. Any future or existing house on the preserved farm may not be subdivided from the farm.

• Large Farm Exception Policy - ODA’s 2008 Clean Ohio AEPP large farm exception policy may allow the landowner of a farm to request one of the following exceptions based on the farm value or the farm size. The Director of ODA, at his discretion, shall determine whether to grant this exception. The Director's approval must be obtained prior to the submission of this application and a copy of such approval shall be submitted with the other required attachments. A formal appeal can be requested by writing a letter to the Director of Agriculture and the Executive Director of Farmland Preservation.

  • Large Farm Size Exception: Farms comprised of no less than 400 acres may request the one-time option to split the farm into two parcels of approximately equal size.

  • Large Farm Value Exception: If the applicant farm's points-based appraisal is more than $1 million, then the landowner may request to sell to ODA an agricultural easement on a portion of the farm.

• Regional Balance - Regional Balance, as defined in § 901-2-01 of the Ohio Administrative Code, will again be considered in the evaluation of AEPP applications for the funding round.

• Eligibility and Scoring Criteria - An application property’s enrollment in all eligibility criteria (e.g., “Agricultural District” §929 of Ohio Revised Code, “Current Agricultural Use Valuation (CAUV)” § 5713.30 of Ohio Revised Code) must be in place by the May 23, application deadline date. Furthermore, an application property’s enrollment or designation in all scoring criteria (e.g., “Agricultural Security Area (ASA)” §931 of Ohio Revised Code, ODA Century Farm, Historical Designation) must be in place by the May 23, application deadline date.

• Title and Appraisal Costs - ODA will initiate a title examination and purchase title insurance. If ODA deems necessary, ODA will have the land appraised. The costs incurred by ODA for these services will be reimbursed to ODA by deducting these costs from the agricultural easement purchase payment.

• NRCS and ODA Cooperation - In order to receive matching funds from the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP), ODA reserves the right to gain additional information about the farm in a timely manner from the landowner and to seek the approval of NRCS on all Deeds of Agricultural Easement under the 2008 AEPP.

Create New Account

To create a new application or to work on one that you’ve already started, log into one of two accounts on the left margin, either a Local Sponsor account or a SWCD/NRCS account. The first step will be to create an account as one of these two entities (“New Local Sponsor” or “New SWCD/NRCS”).

Once the account has been created, you will be able to return later to that account through the "Login" link, using your "User Name" and "Password." for that account.

Throughout the application process, it will be important to remember both accounts’ "User Name" and "Password," and "LSID (for a Local Sponsor)" or "SWCD/NRCS ID (for a SWCD/NRCS account)."

The original Local Sponsor login from a previous year must be used in order to copy information from a previously submitted application. See “How to Copy a Previous Year’s Application to 2008” below.

Log In and Complete the Application

Local Sponsors:

The Local Sponsor, once logged into the system, will be able to create applications and enter in the needed information. Once Steps 1-16 are complete, a SWCD/NRCS representative should log into the system and complete Steps 17 and 18 of the application. The local sponsor is responsible for supplying the SWCD/NRCS representative with the needed information (Farm ID, Landowner Last Name, and the Farm Address, County, Township, and Acreage). Complete the narrative section of the application (Step 19) and then electronically submit the application and print off the entire completed application. Collect needed signatures for Step 20 and gather necessary attachments before submitting the completed hard copy of the application to the Office of Farmland Preservation by registered or certified mail.

Once logged into the system as a Local Sponsor, a “Farm List” will appear listing all applications that have been started or submitted. If you would like to work on an existing application, select “Edit” next to that farm. If you would like to create an additional application, simply click on “Add a New Farm.” Once you have input the new local sponsor information section (Step 2), that same information will automatically appear in all other applications, new and copied, while also allowing the Local Sponsor to edit the information if necessary.

Important: As each step of an application is completed, click “Save” at the bottom of the page. This will allow you to return to the application for editing at a later time. Please do not click “Submit” until you are ready to submit an entire application (For this reason, the system will not allow a user to Submit an application until all steps 1-20 are complete).

Please do not use the “Back” button on your browser, as you may lose unsaved information. Use the side bar located on the left side of the application screen to navigate through the different steps of the application.

SWCD/NRCS:

The SWCD/NRCS representative, once logged into the system, will then be able to complete Steps 17 and 18 of an application. To input information for any given farm, the following information will be needed, which can be collected from the Local Sponsor: Farm ID, Landowner Last Name, and the Farm Address, County, Township, and Acreage. Once Steps 17 and 18 and completed, and the Local Sponsor has completed the remaining steps of the application, the Local Sponsor will have the ability to submit the application and print it off to gain signatures. The SWCD/NRCS signature will be needed on Step 20.

As a SWCD/NRCS representative, once you have logged into the system, a “Farm List” will appear listing all applications that you have begun or submitted. To work on an existing application, select “Edit” next to that farm. To create a new application click on “Add a New Farm.”

It is important while completing Steps 17 and 18 of an application to click “Save” at the bottom of the page. This will allow you to return to the application for editing at a later time without losing previous work. The application will only allow an entirely completed step to be saved. Please do not click “Submit” until you are ready to submit an entire application. For this reason, the system will not allow a user to Submit an application until both the Local Sponsor and SWCD/NRCS have collectively completed all of Steps 1-20.

Please do not use the “Back” button on your browser, as you may lose unsaved information. Use the side bar located on the left side of the application screen to navigate through the different steps of the application.

PRINT THE APPLICATION

To print a blank application click on the “Print Blank Application” button under the “Local Sponsor” header on the left side menu of the screen. This will print all steps of a blank application.

In order to print a complete application, the Local Sponsor must "Submit" the application. To submit and print, Steps 1-18 must be completed by the appropriate parties.

1. The Local Sponsor will need to log in

2. Click on Step 19: Points Based Appraisal, located on the left sidebar

3. Enter the LSID and the FARM ID as directed

4. Click on the “Submit Electronic Application”

5. Click “Next” on Step 20

6. Click “Print Electronically Submitted Application”

How to Copy a Previous Year’s Application to 2008

For Local Sponsors who submitted applications in 2005, 2006, or 2007 and wish to submit those same farms again in 2008, the application system has been updated to allow Local Sponsors to access applications submitted in previous years. This function is intended to assist the Local Sponsor in submitting a new 2008 application with less overall effort required to re-enter data from a previous year.

To utilize the data from a previous year’s application, once a Local Sponsor has logged into the system:

1. A “Farm List” will appear listing all applications that you have previously submitted.

2. Select the desired farm on the list, and click “Copy.”

3. A copy of that farm will appear on the bottom of the list. This will be the copy that you will re-submit (Note: This copy will be assigned a different “FarmID” than the original. You will effectively be submitting a new farm for 2008, but with a great deal of information from the previous year automatically entered into it.)

4. Click on the “Edit” button of this copy, which will allow you to open, edit, and submit the application.

Please note that all submitted 2008 AEPP applications are subject to the same requirements, whether or not information has been duplicated from previous applications. This includes 2008 tax records, local resolutions of support for 2008, and CAUV tax records for 2008.

TIER ONE ESTIMATOR

As a support tool to be used prior to application to the 2008 AEPP, the application system has been updated to allow users to calculate an estimated Tier One score on any given AEPP application.

To utilize this tool, simply click on the “Tier One Estimator” button under the “Local Sponsor” header on the left side menu of the screen. The user will then be prompted to start. This tool is an abbreviated version of the actual application, and uses the Tier One questions of the 2008 application to calculate an estimated Tier One score.