NORWICH – A state program that protects viable agricultural land from future development could be useful in parts of the county reportedly seeing an influx of outsiders moving in, members of Chenango County Farmland Protection Board say.
Known as the Purchase of Development Rights program, the state ensures farmland will stay farmland – and not become a subdivision or commercial site – by reimbursing farmers for 75 percent of their property’s development value.
The money gives farmers incentive to keep their land in agriculture, rather than sell to residential or commercial developers.
Since the state technically takes ownership of the development rights, the land should stay in agriculture “forever,” a term an official familiar with program admits is subjective to legal interpretations.
The county Farmland Protection Board is “exploring” the implementation of the program in Chenango.
“We’ve been talking about purchasing development rights for a long time,” said board president Terry Ives, a Guilford Dairy farmer. “We just weren’t sure how to go about it.”
Last week the board met with Bobbie Harrison, a member of the Farmland Protection Board in Onondaga County, which has helped secure state money for 14 farms in that area.
Harrison explained that municipalities, such as the town or county, must sponsor applicants interested in the program, adding that the municipality, a donor or the applicant must match 25 percent of land’s development value. The state foots the other 75 percent.
Selection rounds occur once a year. Eligible farms must go through an extensive and complicated application process which involves having the property appraised and assessed for its developmental, agricultural and public value. The goal is not to pay back taxes or retirement checks to farmers, Harrison said.
“It’s about land,” she said. “Where does it make sense in your community to protect farmland?”
Access to natural public resources (like an aquifer), attractiveness for development and viability as a future site for agriculture are all examined by the state, Harrison said. Also weighed against an applicant: A property’s value (as it relates to how much the state has to pay), its access to non-seasonal road frontage, soil quality, scenic views and a host of other considerations.
Harrison admits that even though projects shouldn’t be put forward that only seek a bail-out, no one can decide how the money is spent.
“It’s not up to us to decide how the money is spent,” she said. “We’re just hoping the New York and U.S. ag economy will stay strong.”
Locally, Ives and others have concerns about townships in the southeastern part of the county, like Afton, Bainbridge, Coventry, Greene and Guilford, where they say there is a growing population from outside the county moving in that could threaten to displace tracts of viable farm land.
“You see coming in from outside of the area buying a farm or a field and putting a house right in the middle of it,” Ives said, explaining that doing so makes that land difficult, if not impossible, to farm in the fields are broken up with development. “Once that ag land in developed, it doesn’t go back.”
Some farm advocates argue that agriculture is the number one industry in Chenango County. If that land is continually lost, they say it could add to the area’s economic downturn.
According to available U.S. Department of Agriculture census data, the county lost just under 5,000 harvested acres between 1997 and 2002, from 83,448 to 78,715. In that same time period, overall, it went from 197,589 total agricultural acres to 189,980.
Ives added that open farm space requires less local tax dollars because it requires less local services.
In 1996, the state Department of Agriculture and Markets awarded nearly $80 million to protect approximately 36,000 acres on 200 farms in 18 counties.