Politics & Government

North Fork Farmers, Town Board, Discuss Long-Term Farming Picture

As the town works on its Comprehensive Plan, members of the Agricultural Advisory Committee and Town Board met on Tuesday to consider changing parts of the agricultural code.

On Tuesday, Southold's Agricultural Advisory Committee and members of the Town Board continued its ongoing discussion about regulating the local farming industry. 

In a draft letter addressed to the Town Board on Tuesday, the committee suggested that the board allow farmers "to generate revenue streams to recover the cost of land as well as the cost of plant and equipment that will be needed to justify multi-million (dollar) investments in each farm."

For decades, town officials and farmers have been walking a tightrope, trying to balance economic prosperity with the rural and agricultural character that defines the North Fork.

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And as the town continues to work on the agricultural chapter of its Comprehensive Plan – which was drafted in April – the latest in that ongoing conversation took place Tuesday morning at a town board work session.

Chris Biaz, chair of the committee, elaborated on his point in work session.

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"We do have the ability already to do some processing on farms," said Biaz, pointing to the fermentation and subsequent sale of the grapes grown at his own farm, Old Field Vineyards.

"And we think that this is an opportune time to just simply allow on a bona fide farm operation the opportunity to not only produce the raw crop, but prepare the crop for a value-added product that the farmer can realize a better cash flow for."

Biaz said that several different chapters of the town code define "agriculture" or "agricultural production," something the committee would like to see streamlined into a uniform definition, in the agricultural chapter of the code. He also pointed out the omission of any aquaculture references in farm stand regulation.

Due to the preliminary phase that the code recommendations are in at the moment, the committee chair opted not to release drafts of the suggestions to the media.

Pointing to the multiple definitions in the code, Supervisor Scott Russell said, "I would say our first priority should be internal conflicts within different sections of the code. That's easy to fix."

He added, however, that the town must be more vigilant in enforcing parts of its own code that do exist.

Meanwhile attempts to regulate "special events" in town – often held at vineyards – have been hard to come by. Two summers ago a special task force was created to attempt to solve a perceived problem of some events at vineyards operating beyond an agricultural use, though public hearings scheduled as recently as early October have been put off as finding a common ground has proven difficult.

Of about 33,500 acres in Southold Town, just over 8,000 have been protected from development (not counting agricultural development), according to a draft version of the town's Comprehensive Plan. Nearly 9,000 acres remain open for development. And while different levels of government have paid hundreds of millions of dollars around the East End to purchase open space and development rights on farmland, finding a model that will prove beneficial for farming operators and taxpayers is one that appears to be a challenge down the road.

"The next generation of farmer, to me, that's going to be tough," said Councilman Chris Talbot. "Twenty years down the road. These guys who buy property that you can't sell the development rights on. Now if I sold my development rights, I have money to go on with my business. But that next generation..."

Moving forward, members of the Agricultural Advisory Committee are expected to meet with officials to fine tune any drafts for fixes in the code as the Planning Department continues to work on the Comprehensive Plan.


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