LESA Fact Sheet

Land Evaluation and Site Assessment

What is LESA?

The fundamental idea behind a Land Evaluation and Site Assessment (LESA) system is to help local officials make the best land use determinations when considering development. The framework helps to keep the best agriculture land in agriculture. LESA provides a technical framework to numerically rank land parcels based on local resource evaluation and site considerations. This is a ranking locally designed and implemented.  When requested, NRCS can and will provide technical assistance. Currently, officials in the following counties are using LESA to help guide development decisions: Black Hawk, Jasper, Johnson, Linn, Marshall, Muscatine, and Story.

Land Evaluation

In agricultural land evaluation, soils are rated and placed into groups ranging from the best to the least suited for a specific agricultural use, such as cropland, forestland, or pastureland. Then, a relative value is determined for each group. For example, the best group may be assigned a value of 100, while all other groups are assigned lower values. The land evaluation is based on data from the National Cooperative Soil Survey-often called the largest and most valuable natural resource database in the world.

LESA activities, such as measuring land and productivity, assist landowners and others decide whether ag land should be converted to non-agriculture uses.

Site Assessment

Site assessment involves:

• Non-soil factors related to agricultural use of a site such as proximity to an elevatorÊ
• Proximity to existing municipal development
• Other public values of a site such as being near unique areas like the Loess Hills

Each factor selected is assigned a range of possible values according to local needs and objectives. Eliminating guesswork, this process provides a rational, consistent, sound basis for making land use decisions. 

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