TITLE 67

STATE GOVERNMENT AND STATE AFFAIRS

CHAPTER 97

AGRICULTURAL PROTECTION AREA ACT

67-9702.  LEGISLATIVE INTENT. (1) It is hereby declared by the legislature of the state of Idaho that:

(a)  Working farms, ranches, and forests provide important benefits to all Idahoans by sustaining: Idaho’s economy; food and fiber production; the cultural heritage of local communities; habitat for wildlife; intact watersheds for clean water; and opportunities to hunt, fish, and enjoy the outdoors with landowner permission;

(b)  Working farms, ranches, and forests and the benefits they provide to Idahoans are being lost to rapid population growth, conversion to development, and other uses in recent decades;

(c)  Many of Idaho’s rural working landowners are deeply committed to maintaining agricultural and forestry traditions and to serving as stewards of natural resources and wildlife; and

(d)  Idaho deeply respects the property rights of individual landowners and seeks to minimize the government’s control over a landowner’s decisions regarding the use of his property.

(2)  It is hereby declared as the purpose of this chapter to provide an opportunity to protect and enhance the economic and cultural benefits that working lands provide to Idahoans by promoting proactive planning tools for working landowners and governing bodies to maintain and enhance the economic value of working lands without impacting the property of those that elect not to participate in this opportunity.

History:

[67-9702, added 2024, ch. 215, sec. 1, p. 762.]