Farmland protection remains a priority

NORTH EAST — Town Supervisor Dave Sherman wants to make clear a couple of points about the status of the draft Agricultural and Farmland Protection Plan that was presented at a public meeting on Aug. 3. More specifically, he wants to inform residents what will happen once the public comment period ends on Sept. 10; the town’s  Farmland Protection Planning Committee (FPPC) and the American Farmland Trust (AFT), which is the town’s consultant on the project, decided to extend the comment period last week until that time to allow for more input from the community.

After those comments are collected, the AFT’s Liz Brock, along with members from the FPPC and the CAC (Conservation Advisory Council) will review those comments and potentially make changes to the draft. From there a second draft will be born. Once that is done, a second public information meeting will be scheduled. Sherman said perhaps that will occur sometime this fall, although he was unwilling to pinpoint a date, as there’s no way to accurately project when the comments can be integrated into the document and reworked into a second draft copy.

Once that is done, however, it will once again be made available to the public.

“We will make a strong effort to get it out to all of the stakeholders — the CAC, the workgroup, we’ll have it at the library, the Town Hall and online through the community center’s Web site — so people will have the opportunity to read through it and comment on it,†Sherman said, adding the Town Board itself will also comment on the revised plan.

After those comments are taken into consideration by the FPPC and the AFT, they will start working on yet another copy, this time a final version to be presented to the Town Board prior to a public hearing on the document. The board will then have time to review the protection plan and then schedule a public hearing before deciding whether to adopt the document.

“We want to make it clear that this work is ongoing and the Town Board is going to be sometime down the road before it receives the final document from the public for adoption,†Sherman said, adding that the board is not developing the plan but rather reviewing what is being submitted and commenting on that.

The supervisor added that it’s important to consider the need for farmland protection now, before it’s too late and the valuable greenspace is gone and agricultural practices lost forever. “I would hate to see us down to our last stand with farmland preservation before we started to think about it.â€

To review the first draft of the Agricultural and Farmland Protection Plan stop by Town Hall, Village Hall, the NorthEast-Millerton Library or go online to neccmillerton.org/agplan.htm.

Comments from the public about the draft plan will be accepted until the close of business on Thursday, Sept. 10. They can be sent to Liz Brock at lbrock@farmland.org or mailed to American Farmland Trust, ATTN: Liz Brock, 112 Spring St., Suite 207, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866.