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Columbia Farmland Protection hearings initiated
Jan 23, 2011 11:37 am
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Rural Columbia County, maintained by farmland open spaces, has been the the subject of an ongoing series of public hearings on a new protection plan for the county's agriculture."]
[/caption]The first of five public meetings on a new Columbia County Farmland Protection Plan took place Saturday morning, January 22, at the North Chatham Fire House.The need for a local slaughterhouse and a county agriculture Internet presence were among the concerns raised at the meeting, according to a report in the Jan. 23 Register-Star, which also noted that Columbia County is one of only a few counties in New York state without such a plan. The county’s plan, reporter John Mason wrote, has been in the works since 2001, with the first draft released in 2005. Now, with a $37,500 grant from the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, a coalition of groups is working to finish the work started a decade ago, starting with public input. Since 2002, the size of the average farm in Columbia County has declined from 240 acres to 192 acres, while the number of farms has increased 11 percent, from just under 500 to 550. The move to create the new plan takes into account growing pressures from both a second home market in the area that likes the open spaces of agriculture, and would support more farming given proper mechanisms for land rentals to farmers, and developers eying the region's value as a bedroom community feeder for the Capital District. The next public information meeting on the Farmland Protection Program will be 7 p.m. Feb. 3 at Cornell Cooperative Extension on Route 66 in Greenport, and the other meetings are listed on the WGXC Events calendar. Read the rest of the story in Register-Star.
[/caption]The first of five public meetings on a new Columbia County Farmland Protection Plan took place Saturday morning, January 22, at the North Chatham Fire House.The need for a local slaughterhouse and a county agriculture Internet presence were among the concerns raised at the meeting, according to a report in the Jan. 23 Register-Star, which also noted that Columbia County is one of only a few counties in New York state without such a plan. The county’s plan, reporter John Mason wrote, has been in the works since 2001, with the first draft released in 2005. Now, with a $37,500 grant from the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, a coalition of groups is working to finish the work started a decade ago, starting with public input. Since 2002, the size of the average farm in Columbia County has declined from 240 acres to 192 acres, while the number of farms has increased 11 percent, from just under 500 to 550. The move to create the new plan takes into account growing pressures from both a second home market in the area that likes the open spaces of agriculture, and would support more farming given proper mechanisms for land rentals to farmers, and developers eying the region's value as a bedroom community feeder for the Capital District. The next public information meeting on the Farmland Protection Program will be 7 p.m. Feb. 3 at Cornell Cooperative Extension on Route 66 in Greenport, and the other meetings are listed on the WGXC Events calendar. Read the rest of the story in Register-Star.