§ 5 — Agricultural Areas; Creation

Any owner or owners of land may submit a proposal to the county board for the creation of an agricultural area within such county. An agricultural area, at the creation of any such area, shall not be less than 350 acres in all counties with a population under 600,000 and not less than 100 acres in all counties with a population of 600,000 or more. Such proposal shall include a description of the proposed area, including the boundaries thereof. Such territory shall be as compact and nearly contiguous as feasible. If any portion of the proposed area is not contiguous to another portion of the proposed area, that non-contiguous portion must be no more than 1.5 miles from the nearest other portion of the proposed area as measured between the closest boundaries of the 2 portions. An area created under this Act shall be established for a period of ten years. No land shall be included in an agricultural area without the consent of the owner. No land within an agricultural area shall be used for other than agricultural production as described in Sections 3.01 and 3.02 of this Act. Agreements for the extraction of mineral resources duly agreed upon prior to the creation of an agricultural area shall be exempted from the use provisions of this Section. In addition, the extraction of mineral resources conducted pursuant to the Surface Coal Mining Land Conservation and Reclamation Act shall be considered temporary land use and shall be exempted from the use provisions of this Section.

Legislative History

(Source: P.A. 93-234, eff. 7-22-03; 94-444, eff. 1-1-06.)