SUFFOLK CLOSEUP
By Karl Grossman
It’s a triumph for Suffolk County’s visionary Farmland Preservation Program!
The state’s Appellate Division last month rejected by 3-to-1 a ruling by a state Supreme Court justice in 2016 that hamstrung the program. Conceived by County Executive John V. N. Klein, the program, begun in 1974, is based on the brilliant and then novel idea of purchase of development rights. Farmers are paid the difference between the value of their land in agriculture and what they could get for it if they sold it off for development. In return, the land is kept in agriculture in perpetuity.
The Suffolk program has since been emulated across the nation.
It has been central in keeping Suffolk a top agricultural county in New York State and so much of it green. Not only do the farms of the county, on some of the best soils on the planet, produce food and other agricultural products, but they are integral to the thriving tourism industry in Suffolk.
However, the Long Island Pine Barrens Society brought a misguided lawsuit which claimed that allowing “structures” on preserved farmland, as permitted by amendments to the program approved by the Suffolk Legislature, was not legal. And Justice Thomas Whelan supported the claim.
Great credit for the successful appeal goes to current Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, the Suffolk Legislature and the County Farmland Committee. Once the lawsuit was brought, the county promptly arranged for the county to retain a law firm that has long fought for the environment, Riverhead-based Twomey, Latham, Shea, Kelley and Quartararo. Handling the appeal was a partner in the firm, Lisa Clare Kombrink, who has a specialty in farmland preservation as former Southampton Town attorney and in other public legal positions. In a statement, Twomey, Latham described the winning appeal as a “victory for Suffolk County agriculture…a big win.” The firm noted how it “fought back the efforts of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society to jeopardize the county program.”
If the ruling were allowed to stand it would “effectively gut the Farmland Preservation Program,” said Mr. Bellone. “If farmers can’t do the things necessary to run a successful operation, we can’t have farming here anymore.”
Legislator Al Krupski of Cutchogue, who is a fourth-generation Suffolk farmer, said: “There is great diversity in agriculture, and not everyone understands what is needed to operate a productive farm or agricultural operation. Agriculture is changing. Different farming techniques, new technology and methods are emerging, along with the opportunities they present. Infrastructure needs may change. We need to adapt to accommodate these changes if we want to preserve agriculture and farming.”
Legislator Bridget Fleming of Noyac said: “Our critically important agricultural industry will only survive if farmers can undertake the basic practices that make a farm work.”
The Appellate Division in its majority decision stated the county’s “special use permits” for accessory structures “all constitute or are sufficiently related to agricultural production.”
Justice Whelan “basically misconstrued what the county’s original intent was—to prevent the development of farmland but still allow typical and acceptable farm practices to be utilized,” explains State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. of Sag Harbor, an attorney. The Farmland Preservation Program “didn’t freeze in a moment of time” structures that could be on a farm. Farmers who have put their land into preservation under the program, said Mr. Thiele, have been
“entitled” to build sheds, barns and other structures “as long as they complied with the definition of agricultural practices. The idea was that farming is dynamic and that there would have to be changes in the future.”
John v.H.Halsey, president of the Peconic Land Trust, said Suffolk’s “landmark” Farmland Preservation Program “is about assuring the future of farming and agricultural production first and foremost” and, “Agricultural production by definition includes structures like barns, greenhouses and fences.” The program, “the first of its kind in the country, was created to protect not only farmland but farming. Farm operations by definition are the land, the structures, the improvements and the practices necessary to perform agricultural production.”
Rob Carpenter, administrative director of the Long Island Farm Bureau, emphasized that “farmers need to have the ability to change with the times…Farming today is very sophisticated and complicated…No farmer is going to preserve their land if they can’t continue as a farm operation and that means with modern agriculture having the necessary infrastructure in order to farm.”
By bringing its lawsuit, the Long Island Pine Barrens Society broke a long tradition of environmental groups in Suffolk joining in a “big tent” approach, working cooperatively with each other. Whether it had to do with open space, farmland preservation, preserving the pine barrens, clean water, battling nuclear power in Suffolk and challenging offshore oil drilling, they have—until the Pine Barrens Society’s lawsuit—worked in harmony.
Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.