|
November 26, 2004
White Plains An eight-part plan to help Westchester
farmers resist intensifying pressure to sell to developers
was approved in a unanimous vote of the county legislature
this week and sent to County Executive Andrew Spano, who
said he would sign it.
The plan is intended to check the erosion of an industry
that has shrunk to a fraction of its size a century ago,
when central and northern Westchester's expansive farms
were a major source of milk, meat and vegetables for the
south county and New York City.
It recognizes the importance of agriculture in the landscape
that we all live in, Barbara Wilkens, whose family has
grown apples, Christmas trees and pumpkins on Wilkens Fruit
and Fir Farm in Yorktown Heights since 1916, said of the
plan. It also opens the door to some funding so we can
preserve agriculture.
Just 11,586 of Westchester's 288,200 acres was farms or
was capable of being farmed four years ago, the county's
Agricultural and Farmland Protection Board said. Two-thirds
of the farmland was in North Salem, Somers and Bedford;
the rest was in North Castle and Mount Pleasant or north
of those towns.
Except in North Salem, the land has been fragmented by
decades of subdividing driven mostly by local zoning codes
that have helped to push up land values and to push farmers
out. Farming's splintered landscape and other local laws,
such as those that impose 250-foot setbacks on farm operations,
add to the challenge of preserving what remains.
The Agriculture and Farmland Protection Plan will make
county and local governments eligible for state aid to buy
development rights to farmland. The plan proposes seven
other strategies to protect farms, including better public
relations to encourage residents to patronize them.
How It Works: Strategies to preserve farming include:
- Improving public relations, including creating an agricultural
speakers bureau, teaching about farming in the schools
and promoting tours of farms.
- Restoring flexibility for farming in municipal zoning
codes
- Seeking state funding to purchase development rights,
particularly for the larger farms in North Salem.
- Integrating preservation efforts with the Croton Watershed
plan, which is aimed at protecting water quality.
- Working with groups such as the Cornell Cooperative
Extension to train the next generation of farmers.
- Including farming in local economic development efforts.
|
