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<br />4.0 LAND USE <br /> <br />No changes were made to sections 4.1 through 4.6 <br /> <br />4.7 AGRICULTURAL LAND USE <br /> <br />Currently, approximately 620 acres or 49% of <br />used for agriculture. If the development <br />proposed, all of this land will be removed from <br /> <br />the site is <br />occurs as <br />production. <br /> <br />Alternative C (discussed in the Draft EIS) could reduce the <br />total amount of land removed from agricultural production, <br />if some of the planned open space within the PUD was used <br />for agriculture rather than open space/recreational. <br />However, even under this option, less than 1/4 of the <br />current agricultural land could remain in that use. <br /> <br />Agricultural lands in the area have been evaluated on the <br />basis of their production capabilities by the Soil and Water <br />Conservat ion Districts (see Figure Ill). "pr ime" denotes the <br />highest category, describing areas that have soil with the <br />best combination of physical and chemical properties for <br />producing food, feed, forage, fiber and oilseed crops. <br /> <br />Accordi ng to these inventor ies, there are no "pr ime" <br />farmlands within the site. Only very small areas of <br />"statewide" important fa.rmland" and "locally important <br />farmland" are within the site. Therefore, development of <br />this area will not remove any significant amounts of <br />important farmlands from production. <br /> <br />,. <br /> <br />The Northfork development will be relatively self-contained <br />and includes a large parcel of land that will buffer most of <br />its residents from surrounding land uses, including <br />agricultural operations. This should reduce the potential <br />for conflicts between the various land uses and for <br />complaints from residents concerning nearby agricultural <br />operations. <br /> <br />The Anoka Soil and Water Conservation District estimates <br />that there is approximately 42,4511 acres of cropped land in <br />Anoka County. Conversion of the 6211 acres of cropped land <br />in Northfork represents a loss of about 1.5% of the total <br />crop land in the county. As noted above, however, none of <br />this land in Northfork is considered "prime" farmland. <br /> <br />There is no statistical data available concerning the impact <br />that conversion of agricultural land may have on <br />agricultural support services. A recent study published by <br />the USDA estimates that a 111% reduction in agricultural <br /> <br />-18- <br /> <br />I <br />l <br /> <br />