PUBLIC HEARING – AGRICULTURAL
DISTRICT #1
ADDITION OF ONE PARCEL
Monday, March 27, 2023
- 9:30 AM
Shaun Gillilland, Chairman
James Monty, Vice-Chairman
Chairman Gillilland called this Public Hearing
to order at 9:30 am with the following Supervisors in attendance: Clayton
Barber, Robin DeLoria, Stephanie DeZalia, Derek Doty, Shaun Gillilland, Charlie
Harrington, Ken Hughes, Steve McNally, Noel Merrihew, James Monty, Tom
Scozzafava, Matt Stanley, Ike Tyler, Davina Winemiller, Margaret Wood and Mark
Wright. Joe Pete Wilson as absent. Roy Holzer was excused.
Department Heads present: James Dougan, Judy
Garrison, Matt Watts and Michael Mascarenas.
Also present:
Carly Summers
News media – Alana Penny, Sun News.
GILLILLAND:
I will call this public hearing to order and ask of the reading of the
public hearing notice.
GARRISON:
Notice of public hearing Essex County Agriculture and Farmland
Protection Board Agricultural District #1
Please
take notice that the Essex County Board of Supervisors will hold and conduct a
public hearing at the Supervisors' Chambers in the Essex County Government
Center, 7551 Court Street, Elizabethtown, New York on Monday March 27th,
9:30am., on Agricultural District #1, upon the recommendations of the Essex
County Agriculture and Farmland Protection Board regarding parcels to be added
to the Agricultural District of Essex County.
Please
take further notice that the Agriculture and Farmland Protection Board shares
the Agricultural Districts in Essex County have been in existence since 1973
and the district has helped agriculture remain a viable industry in Essex
County. The land to be included was evaluated on the basis of being primarily
productive agricultural land located in an area compatible with agricultural
operations.
Please
take further notice Essex County has a New York State certified Agricultural
District #1 of 62,341 acres. This addition is under Article 25-AA of the Agriculture
and Markets Law.
Please
take further notice that at said public hearing to be held at the time and
place set forth above, the Essex County Board of Supervisors will hear all
persons interested therein concerning the same.
Judith A. Garrison,
Clerk.
Essex County Board of
Supervisors
P.O. Box 217, 7551
Court Street, Elizabethtown, NY 12932
(518) 873-3353
Date: March 17, 2023
GILLILLAND: Thank you. I would just like to give the courtesy of the
floor to Carly Summers for clarification on this.
SUMMERS:
Are there any questions? The
property is in the Town of Essex. It’s
about 63 acres, it’s owned by Jeffrey Sherman.
He’s the person who is starting the new peony company if you’ve seen
that big new building that’s out a little bit south of the Whallonsburg grange it’s
gone up. They are going to be offering a
lot of nursery plants, cut flowers and they’re trying to do a lot of neat
things with flowers but they also want to do beef and ham on this property. It’s on the lake, pretty close to the lake on
Albee Lane so I advised just checking to make sure that area is compatible with
agriculture. There are residents nearby
but Ben Breckenridge who is the Zoning Officer there in Essex said that is
compatible with agriculture and the Farmland Protection Board voted unanimously
that it was going to work. I would be
happy to answer any questions.
GILLILLAND:
Any questions from the board?
HUGHES:
Good morning. The only question I
would have, is I know the previous owner of this property Gary Heurich, he had
a lot of deed restrictions on this property when it was sold and I just wanted
to make sure none of those restrictions are prohibited on what is attempted
here.
SUMMERS:
I was not made aware by the property owner about any problems with the
deed restrictions. I also should say it
is possible the deed restrictions had something to do with environmental
concerns with the lake and things like that.
The new property owners also are aware they have a slope towards the
lake, the soils are clay so they would be more problematic, more prone to
erosion so they’ve already been in contact with the NRCS soil and water to make
sure that they can get the best recommendations to prevent erosion and run off
and sedimentation into the lake as they can so if that has anything to do with
it they’re probably really conscientious.
HUGHES:
Yes, I would agree with you that probably those concerns were more
environmental than they were agricultural and I think that it was a working
farm a long time ago with the buildings that were there so I just wanted to put
that out there for consideration.
SUMMERS:
Yeah, thank you.
GILLILLAND: Any further questions or comments?
DOTY:
Does agricultural status prohibit future home growth? So, I guess associated with your concerns on
deed restrictions. I understand deed
restrictions environmentally but does it change the zoning?
SUMMERS:
It doesn’t change the zoning and it wouldn’t take away building
lots. It’s simply, the agricultural
district for the State is basically a right to farm that’s its primary function
so there a protection on the land in terms of if the State suddenly wanted or
if the area wanted to put a landfill or
make it some kind of, maybe put a municipal water plant on that property they
would say, no, this is agricultural and we’re protecting it but it has no
function in prohibiting development if that’s what the town needed it for and
you can remove properties from the Ag District every seven years so if there
ever was something prohibited this isn’t permanent.
DOTY:
Okay thank you.
GILLILLAND:
If you’re doing standard agricultural practices as recognized by Ag and
Markets then it protects the farmer so if the Ag District, he’s a pig farmer,
the neighbors complain about pig smells he is in the Ag District, he is
protected, mud on the road things like that.
I don’t think a peony farm unless someone objects to flower smells.
SUMMERS:
Right.
DELORIA:
There’s a minimum number of acreage in order to place a parcel into an
Ag District what is that?
SUMMERS:
Seven.
DELORIA:
Oh seven?
SUMMERS:
Yes, it’s pretty low but once you reach a low number like seven they do
want to see a higher income. They want
to see an intensity to the Agriculture and make sure it is commercial. It isn’t
to protect the homestead for instance it’s really to protect commercial
farmland but it’s also to protect residences near commercial farmland so
ideally you’re looking at both audiences and making sure it is a good fit for
everybody.
DELORIA:
Does the Ag District help to create prohibition on solar panels if
someone was going to put that in or that still could be done in the future?
GILLILLAND:
That’s APA dependent in the park.
You don’t mind me jumping in?
SUMMERS:
Sure.
GILLILLAND: That’s APA dependent in the park. I
will say that Cornell is pushing a big program which is solar grazing. Combining solar with sheep grazing and things
like that they are pushing that hard in order to promote the developments of
solar farms and things throughout the State but we have another layer of CCAPA
here.
SCOZZAFAVA:
We have a solar farm going in on property that has had an Ag
exemption. What happens is once the
farmer, the property owner leases that property to the solar company they lose
that ag exemption obviously or a portion of it depending on how many acres they
put there and the land owner continues to pay taxes and the solar company pays
a PILOT to the town and
School.
SUMMERS:
Yes and the Ag exemption is different from the Ag District but because they
are in the same realm they sound pretty similar.
SCOZZAFAVA:
Correct. It wasn’t a detriment,
the point I’m making, to the development of the solar company.
HARRINGTON:
Yes, I’ve driven by there frequently and it appears to me that this, the
owners are very aggressive agriculturally and that they will be employing quite
a number of persons in order to maintain what they have right now on top of
what they plan on having and it all appears to me to be agriculturally based.
SUMMERS: I think so too.
GILLILLAND: Anything else from the board or
members of the public? Alright, if
nothing else we are adjourned. Thank you.
As
there was no further discussion to come before this public hearing it was
adjourned at 9:40 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Judith Garrison, Clerk
Board of Supervisors