By EJ Conzola II
The results of a two-year study of agriculture in the town of Hampton provide a guide to help town officials and residents preserve and enhance farming in the community, according to the consultant who helped draft the document.
“The plan is really a roadmap,” Nan Stolzenburg from Community Planning and Environmental Associates told two dozen residents and officials who turned out for a public hearing on the draft plan Oct. 11.
“It is not a regulatory thing,” she assured some attendees who voiced concerns that adoption of the plan could lead to restrictions on how they operate their agricultural businesses.
Fostering agriculture is key to maintaining the town’s rural character and quality of life – attributes that keep longtime residents there and draw new residents to the community, Stolzenburg said. Residents understand the importance of agriculture and are committed to protecting the rural lands that make up the bulk of Hampton, she said.
In addition to the “tremendous amount of support for agriculture” in Hampton, the town offers productive farmland at reasonable prices, easy access to larger communities via two major roads and an absence of development that takes productive land out of agriculture, Stolzenburg said.
The plan also looked at the challenges facing farmers in the community, including the costs of operating and maintaining a farm, flooding along the Poultney River, difficulties in finding people to work on farms and a lack of processing facilities for agricultural products, according to a summary of the 112-page document.
“What are not issues is just as important to know about as those that are considered issues,” the plan states. “Lack of local storage facilities for farm products, accessibility to credit/loans, lack of information and training, lack of support for farming in the community, nuisance complaints, solar and wind facilities on farms, and loss of farmland to non-farmers were NOT considered issues facing Hampton farmers.”
The focus of the plan is keeping agriculture at the heart of Hampton, said town Planning Board Chair Bonnie Hawley, who also headed up the steering committee for the plan’s development.
“It is so important in this town to look at what we can do,” she said. If the town doesn’t take steps to promote and retain its agricultural base, “in 15 years, what’s it going to be?” she asked rhetorically.
“We need to keep it going,” she added.
Recommendations in the plan included increasing the diversity of agriculture-related businesses, including agritourism, forestry and smaller, niche farms; creation of a farmers market and improved marketing for both the town and the agricultural goods produced there.
Although many of those who attended the hearing voiced support for the plan, a few expressed what Town Board member Michael Pietryka described as “some level of apprehension” about what the proposals could mean for existing farms.
Dairy farmer Brad Perry, who rents roughly a quarter of the land he farms from other property owners, said the encouragement of small niche farms could eat away at the land available for lease, which in turn would seriously damage his operation. The landowners who currently rent their land could be enticed to sell their properties or rent them to newcomers to the community who would offer rates above what local farmers can afford, he worried.
Farmer Walter Douglas also expressed concerns that the plan – which was funded in large part by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets through an Agricultural and Farmland Protection Planning Grant – could eventually give the state more involvement in how local farmers conduct their operations.
“When you start dealing with the state, nothing is free,” he said.
Hampton Supervisor David O’Brien noted that the state is currently pushing the development of solar farms and worried efforts that could lead to more productive farmland becoming covered with solar panels rather than crops or grazing space.
Stolzenburg assured doubters that the plan does not give away local autonomy.
“This plan is not a land-use document,” she said, adding that the comments made at the hearing would be considered before the final plan is adopted by the town.
The town plans to hold a second hearing on the document at 7 p.m. on Nov. 11, after residents have had an opportunity to read and digest the proposal.
The full plan is available on the town’s website at www.hamptonny.org.