drafted: 2/4/2020 draft 1: 3/5/2020 draft 2: 03/24/2020

Drafted: 2/4/2020 Draft 1: 3/5/2020

Draft 2: 03/24/2020 Finalized: 08/2/2021

Landuse and Agricultural Land Exemption Policy

Cherokee County, Iowa

Nathanial Story, GIS Administrator

Assessor’s Office Policy Landuse and Ag Exemption

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Assessor’s Office Background Information Iowa Code Chapter 441 creates the office of the Assessor within each county of Iowa. It also provides a mechanism for cities with population in excess of 10,000 people to select their own City Assessor. Cherokee County, having no cities within its borders with more than 10,000 people, has no City Assessors. Each County Assessor is charged with certain duties, namely, to assess each piece of real property within his or her jurisdiction according to the law. The duties of the County Assessor are discussed in further detail in 441.17. Iowa Code Chapter 441.21 discusses how property subject to taxation shall be assessed. In most cases, assessment is done at market value or the “fair and reasonable exchange” between a “willing buyer” and a “willing seller”. Agricultural land, however, is valued in a different manner within Iowa. Iowa Code 441.21 1. e. sets the methods by which agricultural property shall be assessed. The primary methodology uses productivity and net earning capacity instead of market value.

The actual value of agricultural property shall be determined on the basis of productivity and net earning capacity of the property determined on the basis of its use for agricultural purposes capitalized at a rate of seven percent and applied uniformly among counties and among classes of property. Any formula or method employed to determine productivity and net earning capacity of property shall be adopted in full by rule.

In a nutshell, this means that agricultural properties are subject to valuation using a different process than that used in general appraisal. The Cherokee County Assessor’s Office values agricultural land according to Corn Suitability Rating (CSR2) points applied to a soil survey. These values apply to all agricultural land, and are modified according to a particular tracts land use. Currently, a non-crop landuse designation provides a formula derived discount to land with a CSR greater than half the county’s average tillable CSR. For 2021 this CSR is 44. The value of land within Cherokee County with a CSR of 44 or less receives no discount. CSRs and Value In Cherokee County, each soil type is assigned a CSR value that is updated on odd numbered years. This CSR is coupled with a dollar value per CSR point, which is then used to tabulate the assessed value of a particular agricultural parcel. The CSR is scored on a scale from 5 (lowest) to 100 (highest) per acre. Because land boundaries and soils are not coincidental, the value of an agricultural parcel is essentially a synthesis of several soil types. Further information can be found in Iowa Administrative Code 701 71.3 Not all land is treated the same. In Cherokee County, an agricultural parcel is divided among two main use characteristics, and further divided based on available Agricultural Land Exemptions. Landuse Background Information Within Cherokee County, each parcel of agricultural land is divided and classified as either ‘Crop’ or ‘Non-Crop’ based on current and possible use. Examples are provided within the Iowa Land Valuation Manual, on pages 2-26 and 2-27. These examples are provided to “assist the assessor in determining the land use differentiation between cropland and non-cropland” and consist of the following:


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Cropland

1. Land that at some time has been in production and is capable of crop production. 2. Land currently enrolled in an active conservation reserve program receiving

payments for land that was once in crop production. 3. Land that consists of manmade grass waterways or crossable waterways and is

capable of crop production. 4. Land that consists of manmade terraces, buffer strips, or similar manmade objects. 5. Tillable pasture or vineyards.

Non Cropland

1. Building sites, including driveways and access roads. 2. Non crossable streams or waterways. 3. Forest or Timber ground. 4. Dedicated ponds or dam area. 5. Permanent Pasture. 6. Land under permanent easement that precludes crop production. 7. Land with access limitations or limited ability to be cropped.

Essentially, if the land is unable to be tilled and cropped, it should be classified as non-cropland. However, if the status is questionable or ambiguous, it falls to the Assessor to use his best judgement until such a time as the taxpayer can provide sufficient evidence for classification as non-cropland. For purposes of defining bare ground as permanent pasture, continuous non-cultivation of the land must be observed for 50 years.

In addition to classification as cropland or non-cropland, Cherokee County uses several other landuse designations to ease tax classification. These include Agricultural Exemptions and miscellaneous classifications:

1. Forest Reserve a. Provides an exemption for property established as a forest for fruit tree

reservation. b. Requires application through the Cherokee County Conservation Board.

2. Native Prairie a. Department of Natural Resources certified exemption for land preserved in

its natural condition. b. Yearly application through the DNR.

3. Wetlands a. Exemption for natural conservation areas designated by the county Board of

Supervisors with the Soil and Water Conservation District. b. Yearly application through the Soil and Water Conservation District.

4. Impoundment Structures a. Exemption provided for water impoundment structures outside of an

incorporated city. b. Yearly application through the Assessor’s Office.

5. General Use a. An exemption for properties that are partially exempt but do not fall under

any of the other classifications. Currently used solely for the Solid Waste landfill.


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b. Not available to the general public.

Agricultural land exemptions such as Forest Reserve and Native Prairie are developed with the assistance of employees from the certifying agency. The GIS Administrator works with them to accurately define the borders of exempt areas.

Landuse Determination Background

For each parcel or tract of land within Cherokee County, there is a record of landuse maintained in the County GIS as a landuse layer within the master geodatabase. This layer is maintained by the Cherokee County GIS Administrator using Best Available Data. Best Available Data is partially defined by Iowa Administrative Code 701 71.3(1) a. and in the Iowa Land Valuation Manual 2-28 as coming from Iowa State University, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the National Agricultural Statistics Service, the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA), and Iowa Department of Revenue. Additional sources of data are identified as aerial imagery, and “other reliable sources”. It should be noted, however, that per an FSA email dated Jan. 30th, 2020, explicit crop/non-crop information from the FSA is no longer available under the FOIA to the Cherokee County Assessor’s Office without the permission of the landowner.

The USDA Farm Service Agency develops crop/non-crop determinations as a part of their Common Land Unit (CLU) dataset. They maintain this dataset by using the most recent overhead imagery from the National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP). So too does the Cherokee County Assessor’s Office use the NAIP to help develop crop/non-crop determinations for the land under its jurisdiction.

Data Sources

The primary method for determining landuse is to use a combination of NAIP Colored Infrared (CIR) imagery and specially flown overhead natural color imagery captured both nadir and oblique. For Cherokee County, both nadir and oblique imagery is flown on contract from Eagleview via their Pictometry brand. As of this writing, the most recent imagery flown for Cherokee County was captured in 2018 for Pictometry, and 2019 for NAIP. The next scheduled capture for the county is 2021 for both Pictometry and NAIP.

Pictometry Information

Cherokee County has a contract with Eagleview to receive imagery products through the Pictometry brand. These products include orthographic and oblique imagery at resolutions between 3 inches and 9 inches per pixel. This level of detail allows for the differentiation between types of agricultural equipment, reveals cropping patterns, and within the county’s urban areas, provides enough detail to discern the faces and flag on Cherokee’s Freedom Rock. This type of imagery is flown for the county to assist in assessing property improvements but pulls double duty for agricultural assessments and in determining the landuse for a particular tract.

NAIP Information

The NAIP imagery that Cherokee County uses is a special type of imagery called Colored Infrared. What this means is that instead of the camera collecting visible light like our eyes can see, it also collects a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that the human eye cannot see. This portion of the electromagnetic spectrum is close to visible red, and is called Near Infrared. In most applications of CIR, and in the application Cherokee County uses, that infrared data is


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then colored red so it is visible to the human eye. CIR imagery is important for determining crop/non-crop areas because of the relationship near infrared has with vegetation. The spectral properties of chlorophyll causes leaves to reflect near infrared energy and reveal patterns within the vegetation that may be missed when the same area is examined with natural color imagery. The below images show a comparison with natural color imagery and near infrared CIR:

In Figures 1 and 2, a small stand of trees East of Cherokee is featured. In Figure 1, the natural color imagery was captured in a ‘leaf off’ condition, allowing more light from the ground itself to penetrate the tree cover. In Figure 2, the NAIP CIR imagery was captured during the agricultural growing season, or ‘leaf on’, showing most vegetation within the county in full summer growth.

Both types of imagery provide their own unique benefits to the classification of landuse within the county, but together their utility is amplified. Patterns in landuse that are hidden within the natural color imagery are revealed by the CIR imagery, and in turn, cropping patterns and ground features obscured by vegetation growth are revealed in the higher resolution winter/spring period.

Landuse Determination Process

By exploiting overhead imagery the Cherokee County GIS Administrator aims to make an accurate determination of crop and non-cropland for the purposes of assessment. This is done by searching the tracts in question for certain regular patterns within the imagery that correspond to certain agricultural practices, or the lack thereof. There are a cluster of tell-tall patterns that reveal different types of agricultural activity. Additionally, the GIS Administrator uses their best judgement for areas of the county that do not clearly fall into either cropland or non-cropland. The next page features a selection of imagery from different locations within Cherokee County that correspond to different types of landuse.

Figure 1: 2018 Natural Color Imagery Figure 2: 2019 NAIP CIR Imagery


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Some landuse patterns are easily designated as cropland or non-cropland activities, some are more difficult to discern. In these cases, additional data may be leveraged to tip the scales in one direction of these other. Factors such as previous years’ usage, current landuse designation, and field reports all assist in the classification of agricultural land. The ultimate goal is to develop an accurate view of the way land is used within the county so that assessments and taxes can be equitably and fairly determined, in accordance with Iowa law.

Process Cycle

The process of updating landuse is continual, and relies on several other cycles within Cherokee County. Land values are updated en masse on odd numbered years, and individual parcels may have their values updated at any time throughout the assessment season. The years of mass land reappraisal are the same years that NAIP imagery is captured for the county. Natural color imagery is currently captured on a three year cycle, coinciding with NAIP capture for 2021. This results in landuse and land values being updated within the tax system months prior to new imagery being flown for the county. The knock on effect is that when the Assessor’s Office updates land values for 2021, it will be based on landuse changes made using 2018 and 2019 imagery. Individual land value updates after 2021 and prior to 2023 will be made using 2021 imagery as the landuse layer is updated.

Landowner Responsibilities and Appeals

Landowners are encouraged to report changes in the way they use their land to the Assessor’s Office, and may do so via email, phone call, or letter. Most often, changes in landuse are the result of placing new building sites, razing houses to expand tilling opportunities, or planting trees. If a landowner does not agree with how their land is classified they may contact the GIS Administrator at any time and make an informal appeal. The informal appeal must be accompanied by concrete evidence of how the land is being used. If the landowner is not satisfied with the outcome of the informal appeal, they may escalate to the County Assessor. Informal and formal appeals may also be made on the basis of value according to the timeline established on the Assessor’s website.

drafted: 2/4/2020 draft 1: 3/5/2020 draft 2: 03/24/2020

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