§205-50  Standards and criteria for thereclassification or rezoning of important agricultural lands.  (a)  Anyland use district boundary amendment or change in zoning involving importantagricultural lands identified pursuant to this chapter shall be subject to thissection.

(b)  Upon acceptance by the county forprocessing, any application for a special permit involving importantagricultural lands shall be referred to the department of agriculture and theoffice of planning for review and comment.

(c)  Any decision by the land use commission orcounty pursuant to this section shall specifically consider the followingstandards and criteria:

(1)  The relative importance of the land foragriculture based on the stock of similarly suited lands in the area and theState as a whole;

(2)  The proposed district boundary amendment or zonechange will not harm the productivity or viability of existing agriculturalactivity in the area, or adversely affect the viability of other agriculturalactivities or operations that share infrastructure, processing, marketing, orother production-related costs or facilities with the agricultural activitieson the land in question;

(3)  The district boundary amendment or zone changewill not cause the fragmentation of or intrusion of nonagricultural uses intolargely intact areas of lands identified by the State as important agriculturallands that create residual parcels of a size that would preclude viableagricultural use;

(4)  The public benefit to be derived from the proposedaction is justified by a need for additional lands for nonagriculturalpurposes; and

(5)  The impact of the proposed district boundaryamendment or zone change on the necessity and capacity of state and countyagencies to provide and support additional agricultural infrastructure orservices in the area.

(d)  Any decision pursuant to this sectionshall be based upon a determination that:

(1)  On balance, the public benefit from the proposeddistrict boundary amendment or zone change outweighs the benefits of retainingthe land for agricultural purposes; and

(2)  The proposed action will have no significantimpact upon the viability of agricultural operations on adjacent agriculturallands.

(e)  The standards and criteria of this sectionshall be in addition to:

(1)  The decision-making criteria of section 205-17governing decisions of the land use commission under this chapter; and

(2)  The decision-making criteria adopted by eachcounty to govern decisions of county decision-making authorities under thischapter.

(f)  Any decision of the land use commissionand any decision of any county on a land use district boundary amendment orchange in zoning involving important agricultural lands shall be approved bythe body responsible for the decision by a two-thirds vote of the membership towhich the body is entitled.

(g)  A farmer or landowner with qualifyinglands may also petition the land use commission to remove the "importantagricultural lands" designation from lands if a sufficient supply of wateris no longer available to allow profitable farming of the land due togovernmental actions, acts of God, or other causes beyond the farmer's or landowner'sreasonable control.  If the "important agricultural lands" weredesignated by a declaratory order in combination with the reclassification ofland in the agricultural district to the rural, urban, or conservation districtpursuant to section 205-45, the commission shall not remove the designationunless the legislature provides prior authorization by adoption of a concurrentresolution in accordance with section 205-45. [L 2005, c 183, pt of §2; am L2008, c 233, §20]