The Forsyth County Board of Tax Assessors reviewed 29 applications for conservation use at its monthly meeting, but tabled a few that stumped members.

Certain criteria must be met to receive the approved use.

According to the tax assessors Web site, “Bona fide agricultural property can be assessed at its current use value rather than the fair market value. Property that qualifies for this special assessment must be maintained in a current use for a period of 10 years.”

At recent meetings, the board had appeared less likely to approve smaller parcels of land as conservation use.

A few of the applications reviewed at Thursday’s monthly meeting were less than 10 acres.

However, they adjoined a large property owned by the same person or used for the same farming purpose, which presented a conundrum.

Tax Assessor Mary Kirkpatrick said Morgan County, east of Atlanta, has approved a policy to allow another parcel, often an expansion of an existing property, to join the conservation use of a neighboring parcel.

Applications are currently submitted and considered on a single parcel basis.

“I think the policy could be good in that you don’t have a whole lot of small parcels with conservation use sitting out there,” Kirkpatrick said.

The five-member board showed interest in considering a policy to that effect and agreed to discuss it at next month’s meeting.

Three applications that could fall under a purview of such a policy were also delayed until then.

On Thursday, the board approved 20 conservation use applications, denied four and tabled four.

Also at the meeting, the members elected officers for 2012, selecting Charles Meagher as chairman and Charles Cantrell as vice chairman.