Text Box: would not interfere with the need to erect temporary and other structures used for farm stands and events, though such restrictions might be needed in other areas. Doyle suggested that municipalities could use part of the mortgage recording tax to fund open space to create a more consistent funding stream. Gardiner Planning Board Chairman and farmer Michael Boylan recommended that towns create a broad open space tax so that even when the housing market was in recession money could still be set aside each year. State law permits municipalities to create agricultural districts, which tax farmland based on the use of the land for agricultural production rather than on its development value. A point emphasized by workshop leaders and participants alike was the value of having farmers represented on local planning, zoning and other policy boards because they understand the impact of proposed policies and how state and federal laws can override certain local land-use and other decisions. Helene Dembroski, a farmer and first-term Plattekill town Zoning Board of Appeals member, provided an example of how the New York Agricultural District Law protected her from nuisance lawsuits resulting from reasonable agricultural practices. Dembroski runs a 350-acre apple orchard with her father. Neighbors became angered when they fired air cannons to frighten the deer from the orchard. Dembroski asked the town to organize a public meeting to explain what she was doing and how farming was protected by state law. Text Box: By Aimee J. Frank Approximately 35 planning board members, town supervisors, farmers and land trust representatives from throughout Ulster County filled the legislative chamber last Thursday to participate in an Ulster County Planning Board workshop on how municipalities can protect open space and working farms. Titled “Planning for Open Space: Challenges, Principles and Tools,” the workshop was moderated by Ulster County Planning Director Dennis Doyle and Deputy Director Jennifer Schwartz, who were joined by American Farmland Trust’s Northeast Regional Director Jerry Cosgrove. The forum was designed to inform planners of the tools available to them in their efforts to protect open space resources, including municipal regulations, tax policy and land acquisition, and to encourage discussion about the experiences of local officials in addressing this issue. The discussion covered deed restrictions and conservation easements, which provide land owners with tax breaks for entering agreements with third parties, usually land trusts, which place permanent limits on how the property can be used. The Purchase of Developments Rights (PDR) enables a land owner, a farmer for example, to continue to use the land as outlined to in the PDR agreement while forfeiting the right to ever subdivide the property for development purposes. The discussion also covered how municipalities could use zoning policies, such as overlay districts, special use permits, incentive zoning or clustered development requirements, to preserve open space, wetlands Text Box: and other areas municipalities want to protect. Save the working farm The protection of working farmland drew considerable attention from participants. In the Hudson Valley, working farms continue to disappear from the landscape. Those that do remain have changed from farms of the past, but remain an important part of the local economy. Over 70,000 acres of land in the county is in agricultural land, and agricultural output in the county was valued at $51.2 million in 1997. Dairy farms are being replaced by vegetable farms whose products are grown for direct marketing to consumers through farmers’ markets and community-supported agriculture programs. More farmers are establishing niches in goat meat, special cheeses or other specialty markets, and usually require less acreage than former farm operations. Cosgrove emphasized that farming is both a land use and a business activity, so planning and zoning laws should reflect this. Working farms contribute substantially to view sheds, he said, and once abandoned will be overtaken with growth that could eventually diminish views. “Without the business activity, the land use is still open space but it’s not farmland,” said Cosgrove. “That’s a very critical distinction which makes Agriculture, in our view, a preferred open space because unless you’re high on the mountain top you’re not going to have many scenic views.... Without the activity you’re not going to have this open space.” He noted some policies could be designed to promote agricultural businesses, such as implementing zoning restrictions that Text Box: Future forums Presentation materials from this workshop, one in a series of programs organized by the planning department to share information about resources available to municipal officials and board volunteers who serve their communities, is available from the planning office. Dennis Doyle said the workshops and programs are designed to raise the level of awareness of the technical expertise that is available throughout county government and elsewhere to the disparate local officials and organizations interested in planning. “We’re trying to provide a forum where we can all come together and begin to see what commonalities we have and what tools are available to us,” Doyle said. “So this is a very unique way of bringing people in and beginning to have a broader discussion about the issues.” Programs will begin again in the fall. For further information, call the planning board office at (845) 340-3340.

Open space ... the final frontier

County planners stage forum series to help municipalities protect their agricultural viewsheds

Thursday, May 25, 2006