Rule 560-11-6-.02 - DefinitionsFor the purposes of implementing O.C.G.A. Section 48-5-7.4, O.C.G.A. Section 48-5-269 and these Regulations, the following terms are defined to mean:
(a) "Beneficial interest," in addition to legal ownership or control, means the right to derive any profit, benefit, or advantage by way of a contract, stock ownership or interest in an estate;(b) "Contiguous" means real property within a county that abuts, joins, or touches and has the same undivided common ownership. If an applicant's tract is divided by a public roadway, public easement, public right of way, natural boundary, land lot line, or railroad track, then the applicant has, at the time of the initial application, a one-time election to declare the tract as contiguous irrespective of a county boundary, public roadway, public easement, public right of way, natural boundary, land lot line, or railroad track.(c) "Continued Covenant" means a covenant entered and carried forward, for the remainder of the original or renewal covenant term, by a qualified subsequent owner who has acquired all or a part of a property;(d) "Good Faith Production" means: 1.A viable utilization of the property for the primary purpose of any good faith production, including, but not limited to, subsistence farming or commercial production, from or on the land of agricultural products or timber;2.The primary use of the property shall include, but not be limited to: (i) Raising, harvesting, or storing crops; (ii) Feeding, breeding, or managing livestock or poultry;(iii) Producing plants, trees, fowl, or animals;(iv) Production of aquaculture, horticulture, floriculture, forestry, dairy, livestock, poultry, or apiarian products; or(v) Land conservation and ecological forest management in which commercial production of wood and wood fiber products may be undertaken primarily for conservation and restoration purposes rather than financial gain.3.Factors which may be considered in determining if such property is primarily used for good faith production of agricultural products or timber may include, but are not limited to: (i) The nature of the terrain;(ii) the density of the marketable product on the land;(iii) the past usage of the land;(iv) the economic merchantability of the agricultural product; and(v) the utilization or non-utilization of recognized care, cultivation, harvesting, and like practices applicable to the product involved and any implemented plans thereof;(e) "Maintenance in its natural condition" means to manage the land in such a manner that would not ruin, erode, harm, damage, or spoil the nature, distinctiveness, identity, appearance, utility or function that originally characterized the property as environmentally sensitive under O.C.G.A. Section 48-5-7.4(a)(2);(f) "Mineral exploration" means the examination and investigation of land by drilling, boring, sinking shafts, driving tunnels, or other means, for the purpose of discovering the presence and extent of valuable minerals. Such term does not include the excavation of any such minerals after discovery;(g) "Primary purpose or primary use" means the principal use to which the property is devoted, as distinct from an incidental, occasional, intermediate or temporary use for some other purpose not detrimental to or in conflict with its primary purpose, i.e., the devotion to and utilization of the property for the full time necessary and customary to accommodate the predominant use, e.g. the growing season, the crop cycle or planting to harvest cycle;(h)"Qualifying use" means the primary use to which the property is devoted that qualifies the property for current use valuation under O.C.G.A. Section 48-5-7.4;(i) "Renewal Covenant" means an additional ten year covenant entered upon the expiration of a previous ten year covenant; provided, however, that the owner may enter into a renewal contract in the ninth year of a covenant period;(j) "Tract" means a parcel of property, less underlying property excluded from the covenants for residences, that is delineated by legal boundaries, levying authorities tax district boundaries, or other boundaries designated by the tax assessors to facilitate the proper identification of property on their maps and records.(k) "Underlying Property" means the minimum lot size required for residential construction by local zoning ordinances or two acres, whichever is less for which the taxpayer has provided documents which delineate the legal boundaries so as to facilitate the proper identification of such property on the board of tax assessors maps and records.Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. R. 560-11-6-.02
O.C.G.A. §§ 48-2-12, 48-5-7.4, 48-5-269.
Original Rule entitled "Definitions" adopted. F. May 28, 1993; eff. June 17, 1993.Amended: F. Jun. 10, 2013; eff. Jun. 30, 2013.Amended: F. May 18, 2015; eff. June 7, 2015.