POLICY 26

CONSERVE AND PROTECT AGRICULTURAL LANDS IN THE STATE'S COASTAL AREA.

Explanation of Policy

The first step in conserving agricultural lands is the identification of such lands. The Department of State is mapping all important agricultural lands within the State's coastal area. The following criteria have been used to prepare the maps, and the mapped information will be incorporated in the New York State Coastal Resources Inventory and on the Coastal Area Map.

Land meeting any of the following criteria is being mapped. ⁽¹⁾

1. Land which meet the definition of the U.S. Department of Agriculture as being prime farmland, unique farmland, or farmland of statewide importance.

a. Prime farmland is defined by USDA Soil Conservation Service in CRF #7 Agriculture Part 657.5(a), January 1979. A list of the soil associations that meet this definition has been prepared for each coastal county. ⁽²⁾

b. Unique farmland is defined by USDASCS in CRF #7 Agriculture Part 657.5(b). In the coastal area of New York all fruit and vegetable farming meets the terms of the definition.

c. Farmland of Statewide importance is defined by USDASCS in CRF #7 Agriculture Part 656.5(c). Lists of soil associations which constitute farmland of Statewide importance have been prepared for each coastal county.

2. Active farmland within Agricultural Districts. The maps of each Agricultural District shows land committed by farmers. This is the land that will be mapped as active farmland. The district boundary will also be shown.

3. Areas identified as having high economic viability for farming. Any farm not identified under 1 and/or 2 above and which is located in an area identified as having "high viability" on the map entitled "Economic Viability of Farm Areas" prepared by the Office of Planning Coordination in May, 1969. This would be the basis for initial identification of areas having high economic viability for farming. Areas will be added and/or deleted based on comments from the agricultural community.

4. Areas adjacent to land identified under 1 above if these areas are being farmed and are part of a farm with identified important agricultural lands.

5. Prime farmland, unique farmland, and farmland of Statewide significance will not be identified as important agricultural land whenever it occurs as parcels of land less than 25 acres in size and these small parcels are not within a mile of areas of active farming.

Given the Program's application to a narrow strip of land, implementing a policy of promoting agricultural use of land must, to be practical, concentrate on controlling the replacement of agricultural land uses with non-agricultural land use as the result of some public action. The many other factors such as markets, taxes, and regulations, which influence the viability of agriculture in a given area, can only be addressed on a Statewide or national basis.

The Program policy requires a concern for the loss of any important agricultural land. However, the primary concern must be with the loss of agricultural land when that loss would have a significant effect on an agricultural area's ability to continue to exist, to prosper, and even to expand. A series of determinations are necessary to establish whether a public action is consistent with the conservation and protection of agricultural lands, or whether it is likely to be harmful to the health of an agricultural area. In brief, these determinations are as follows:

First, it must be determined whether a proposed public action would result in the loss of important agricultural lands as mapped in on the Coastal Inventory. If it would not result, either directly or indirectly, in the loss of identified important agricultural lands, then the action is consistent with the policy on agriculture. If it is determined that the action would result in a loss of identified important agricultural lands, but that loss would not have an adverse effect of the viability of agriculture in the surrounding area, then the action may also be consistent with this policy. However, in that case, the action must be undertaken in a manner that would minimize the loss of important farmland. If the action is determined to result in a significant loss of important agricultural land, that is if the loss is to a degree sufficient to adversely affect surrounding agriculture's viability -- its ability to continue to exist, to prosper, and even to expand -- then the action is not consistent with this agriculture policy.

The following guidelines define more fully what must be considered in making the above determinations:

A. A public action would be likely to significantly impair the viability of an agricultural area in which identified important agricultural lands are located if:

1. The action would occur on identified important agricultural land and would:

(a) Consume more than 10% of the land of an active farm ⁽³⁾

containing such identified important agricultural lands.

(b) Consume a total of 100 acres or more of identified important agricultural land.

(c) Divide an active farm with identified important agricultural land into two or more parts, thus impeding efficient farm operation.

2. The action would result in environmental changes which may reduce the productivity or adversely affect the quality of the product of any identified important agricultural lands.

3. The action would create real estate market conditions favorable to the conversion of large areas of identified important agricultural land to non-agricultural uses. Such conditions may be created by:

(a) Public water or sewer facilities to serve non-farm structures.

(b) Transportation, improvements, except for maintenance of, and safety improvements to, existing facilities, that serve non-farm or non-farm related development.

(d) Major public institutions.

(e) Residential uses other than farm dwellings.

(f) Any change in land use regulations applying to agricultural land which would encourage or allow uses incompatible with the agricultural use of the land.

B. The following types of facilities and activities should not be construed as having adverse effects on the preservation of agricultural land:

1. Farm dwellings, barns, silos, and other accessory uses and structures incidental to agricultural production or necessary for farm family supplemental income.

2. Agribusiness development, which includes the entire structure of local support services and commercial enterprises necessary to maintain an agricultural operation, e.g., milk hauler, grain dealer, farm machinery dealer, veterinarian, food processing plants.

C. In determining whether an action that would result in the loss of farmland is of overriding regional or Statewide benefit, the following factors should be considered:

1. For an action to be considered overriding, it must be shown to provide significantly greater benefits to the region or State than are provided by the affected agricultural area (not merely the land directly affected by the action). In determining the benefits of the affected agriculture to the region or State, consideration must be given to its social and cultural value, its economic viability, its environmental benefits, its existing and potential contribution to food or fiber production in the State and any State food policy, as well as its direct economic benefits.

(a) An agricultural area is an area predominantly in farming and in which the farms produce similar products and/or rely on the same agribusiness support services and are to be a significant degree economically inter-dependent. At a minimum, this area should consist of at least 500 acres of identified important agriculture land. For the purpose of analyzing impacts of any action on agriculture, the boundary of such area need not be restricted to land within the coastal boundary. If the affected agricultural lands lie within an agricultural district then, at a minimum, the agricultural area should include the entire agricultural district.

(b) In determining the benefits of an agricultural area, its relationship to agricultural lands outside the area should also be considered.

i soil resources, topography, conditions of climate and water resources;

ii availability of agribusiness and other support services, and the level and condition of investments in farm real estate, livestock and equipment;

iii the level of farming skills as evidenced by income obtained, yield estimates for crops, and costs being experienced with the present types and conditions of buildings, equipment, and cropland;

iv use of new technology and the rates at which new technology is adopted;

v competition from substitute products and other farming regions and trends in total demand for given products;

vi patterns of farm ownership for their effect on farm efficiency and the likelihood that farms will remain in use.

(d) The estimate of the social and cultural value of farming in the area should be based on an analysis of:

i the history of farming in the area;

ii the length of time farms have remained in one family;

iii the degree to which farmers in the area share a cultural or ethnic heritage;

iv the extent to which products are sold and consumed locally;

v the degree to which a specific crop(s) has become identified with a community.

(e) An estimate of the environmental benefits of the affected agriculture should be based on analysis of:

i the extent to which the affected agriculture as currently practiced provides a habitat or food for wildlife;

ii the extent to which a farm landscape adds to the visual quality of an area;

iii any regional or local open space plans, and degree to which the open space contributes to air quality;

iv the degree to which the affected agriculture does, or could, contribute to the establishment of a clear edge between rural and urban development.

D. Whenever a proposed action is determined to have an insignificant adverse effect on identified important agricultural land, or whenever it is permitted to substantially hinder the achievement of the policy according to DOS regulations, Part 600, or as a result of the findings of an EIS, then the required minimization should be undertaken in the following manner:

1. The proposed action shall, to the extent practicable, be sited on any land not identified as important agricultural, or, if it must be sited on identified important agricultural land, sited to avoid classes of agricultural land according to the following priority;

(a) prime farmland in orchards or vineyards

(b) unique farmland in orchard or vineyards

(d) other uniqure farmland

(e) farmland of Statewide importance in active farming.

(f) active farmland identified as having high economic viability

(g) prime farmland not being farmed

(h) farmland of Statewide importance not being farmed

2. To the extent practicable, agricultural use of identified important agricultural land not directly necessary for the operation of the proposed non-agricultural action should be provided for through such means as lease arrangements with farmers, direct undertaking of agriculture, or sale of surplus land to farmers. Agricultural use of such land shall have priority over any other proposed multiple use of the land.

1. After mapping according to this definition was substantially completed, the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets completed development of a new agricultural land classification system. As soon as is practical, the following definition will be the basis for revising maps of coastal agricultural land. Important agricultural land shall include all land within an agricultural district or subject to an eight-year commitment which has been farmed within at least two of the last five years, or any land farmed within at least two of the five years in soil groups 1-4 as classified by the Land Classification System established by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, or any land farmed within at least two of the last five years which is influenced by climate conditions which support the growth of high value crops. Additionally, agricultural land not meeting the above criteria but located adjacent to any such land and forming part of an on-going agricultural enterprise shall be considered important agricultural land.

2. For the purposes of this map the urban areas which are to be excluded are all cities, the Counties of Nassau, Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Erie, and any built up area.

3. A farm is defined as an area of at least 10 acres devoted to agricultural production as defined in the Agricultural District Law and from which agricultural products have yielded gross receipts of $10,000 in the past year.