A proposed Working Lands Protection Plan unveiled for the Moore County Planning Board Thursday night is designed to encourage family farms and preserve and enhance agricultural enterprises.

Long-range planner Jeremy Rust called the document a draft, subject to amendment as needed.

“This is a living, breathing document,” he said.

The plan was inspired by the Base Realignment and Closure Regional Task Force (BRAC-RTF), which has been working on growth expected for the area around Fort Bragg since 2006. The task force effort applies to 11 counties, including Moore, that surround the army base.

The Regional Land Use Advisory Commission has already recommended that 39,420 acres of the 87,148 acres within a five-mile radius be held as farms and forest.

Martha Blake, who chairs the planning board, agreed to serve on a Working Lands Protection Plan Advisory Committee and asked for two volunteers to complete the board’s presentation on the board. Volunteering to serve were Robert Hayter and Rodney Pickler.

They will join three members each from the Soil and Water Conservation District Board of Supervisors and the Agricultural Advisory Committee.

In other business, the planning panel unanimously recommended approval of proposed text amendments to the subdivision ordinance pertaining to project edge buffers. The amendments now go to the county commissioners for approval.

The board voted to table action on text amendments to the zoning ordinance provision on home occupations of an industrial or commercial nature. The matter will be returned to the agenda at the next meeting.

Presentations were also given on the N.C. Department of Transportation transition program and the Comprehensive Transportation Plan.