To be eligible for participation in an agreement pursuant to Section 4795 or loan pursuant to Section 4796, the following conditions must be met:
(a)
The application requirements of Section 4799 are satisfied.
(b)
The landowner is a person owning forest land. Where the land is owned jointly by more than one individual, group, association, or corporation, as joint tenants, tenants in common, tenants by the entirety, or otherwise, the joint owners shall be considered, for the purposes of this chapter, as one eligible landowner.
(c)
With respect to cost-sharing agreements made pursuant to Section 4795 or loans made pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 4796, the amount of forest land in the state within the ownership of the landowner is 5,000 acres or less.
(d)
With respect to loans made pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 4796, the acreage of the parcel to which the proposed forest resource improvement project applies, together with the acreage included in any other such project subject to an agreement or loan executed or made pursuant to this chapter during the same fiscal year, does not exceed 500 acres; provided, that this limit shall not apply to forest resource improvement projects on lands that have been substantially damaged by fire, flood, insects, disease, or other natural causes within 36 months of submission of an application pursuant to this chapter.
(e)
The parcel of forest land to which the forest resource improvement project applies is either:
(1)
Within a timber preserve zone established pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 6.7 (commencing with Section 51100) of Part 1 of Division 1 of Title 5 of the Government Code; provided, that the parcel of forest land is not the subject of an application for rezoning or immediate rezoning pursuant to Section 51120 or 51130 of the Government Code.
(2)
Subject to a contract signed by the landowner providing that the owner agrees not to develop the land for uses incompatible with forest resource management within 10 years following execution of an agreement pursuant to Section 4795 or the making of a loan pursuant to Section 4796. The director shall record the contract in the office of the county recorder in the county in which such parcel of land is located and, upon recordation, the contract shall be binding upon any person to whom such parcel of land is sold, assigned, devised, or otherwise transferred by agreement or operation of law.