Genesee County Agricultural and Farmland Protection Plan

Agriculture and Farmland Protection Plan
ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Current Conditions
When it comes to planning for the protection of its agricultural land base, Genesee County has
several strengths not always present when a community puts it’s mind to this complex task.
Namely, Genesee County contains a combination of excellent soils and climate conditions, along
with strong economic indicators for industry viability. Agriculture remains a major economic
force in the county and is home to some very large operations as well as many smaller ones. At
the same time, suburban development (along with its inevitable fragmentation and land use
conflicts) is only beginning to occur. It is a moment in time when the potential threat to a critical
mass of farmland is present but is not yet overwhelming. That means that there is time for
Genesee County and its towns to better prepare themselves for the next ten to fifteen years –
perhaps ‘to change in order to stay the same’.
Reasons for developing and implementing a Agriculture and Farmland Protection Plan include
focussing attention on the resources in need of protection, devising a strategy to protect those
area, and in doing so, paving the way for the County’s participation in the state’s Purchase of
Development Rights (PDR) Program. The purchase of development rights on large blocks of
contiguous farmland to keep the land available for agriculture well into the future is a very
important tool. It will require a financial commitment from both the County and the State of New
York. If it is an adequate and sustained effort, however, the local jurisdictions will reap the most
benefits in avoided infrastructure costs, fiscal stability and quality of life for its residents.
However, Genesee County also faces several significant challenges as it embarks on this effort.
The first is that there appears to be little money available to provide the required matching local
contribution to state PDR. And no single potential revenue source is obvious. The second is the
poor zoning support in the agriculture districts for the long-term investment of PDR. Zoning that
allows for relatively high residential densities (higher than 1:20) has the effect of eventually
undermining the farm-friendly agricultural uses due to pressure over time from new suburban
neighbors and it destabilizes the land surrounding those in which the community has invested in
the long-term protection with PDR. The agricultural industry in Genesee County, as a whole, is
vulnerable to ‘death by a thousand cuts’ because of a combination of factors:
1. Zoning that is ‘weak’ because it contains the potential for widespread residential
development where agricultural production was intended.
2. The physical necessity for the water infrastructure to be run through agricultural areas
tests the resolve of municipalities to limit lateral connections that would doom protection
efforts.
3. The circumstance of multiple governmental entities (villages, towns and county) with
land use decision-making or review authority makes the job of developing and
Columbia, MD
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