(3) In making its recommendation, the county agricultural preservation
advisory board shall:

(I) [take] TAKE into consideration criteria and standards
established by the Foundation under this subtitle[;], current local regulations, local
patterns of land development, THE KINDS OF PRESSURES TO DEVELOP THE SUBJECT
LAND, STATE SMART GROWTH GOALS, and any locally established priorities for the
preservation of agricultural land[.]; AND

(II) RECOMMEND FOR RANKING ANY APPLICATION THAT
QUALIFIES AND MEETS THE PRIORITIES ESTABLISHED BY THE COUNTY GOVERNING
BODY FOR THE PRESERVATION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND.

(4) The county agricultural preservation advisory board shall provide a
public hearing concerning any application to sell if such a hearing is requested by a
majority of the county agricultural preservation advisory board, or by a majority of
the county governing body, or by the applicant.

(5) The board of trustees of the Foundation shall not approve any
application to sell which has not been approved by the governing body of the county
containing the subject land.

(D (1) In determining which applications it shall approve for the purchase
of the easements offered for sale in each fiscal year under this section, the
Foundation:

(i) May approve only those applications in which the subject land
meets the criteria and standards established under §§ 2-509 and 2-513 of this
subtitle; [and]

(ii) EXCEPT AS PROVIDED IN SUBPARAGRAPH (III) OF THIS
PARAGRAPH, RANK THE APPLICATIONS AND SUBMIT OFFERS TO BUY AT THE
BEGINNING OF EACH OFFER CYCLE BASED ON THE APPROVED PRIORITIES
ESTABLISHED BY EACH ELIGIBLE COUNTY FOR THE PRESERVATION OF
AGRICULTURAL LAND; AND

(III) FOR APPLICATIONS COMPETING ON A STATEWIDE BASIS
FOLLOWING THE INITIAL ROUND OF OFFERS, [Shall] SHALL rank the applications
and submit offers to buy in order of priority, as provided in PARAGRAPH (2) OF this
subsection.

(2) The Foundation shall adopt by regulation a standard priority ranking
system FOR ADDITIONAL OFFERS TO BUY by which it shall rank each application. The
system shall be based on the following criteria as to the easements offered in any one
county:

(i) The applications shall be assigned a rank in ascending order
with respect to the proportion obtained by dividing the asking price by the State
easement value. The resulting rank shall be the sole criterion for establishing the
priority for discounted applications that include proportions of 1.0 or lower.