Cuomo breathes life into farmland protection effort
The state is bringing back to life a program aimed at protecting the state’s farmland, having secured $20.5 million in funding for the initiative, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced earlier this month.
To help plan for the future of agriculture, the Farmland Protection Program will provide county and municipal governments — and for the first time, soil and water conservation districts and not-for-profit conservation organizations (like the Peconic Land Trust) — funding to help purchase development rights on farmland, ensuring they stay in agriculture.
In 2008, funding for the program, which is made available through the state Environmental Protection Fund and administered by the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, was cut by more than 50 percent.
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Grants have not been offered for the past five years, said Melissa Spiro, land preservation coordinator for Southold Town.
“This is very important,” Ms. Spiro said. “They partially fund projects, so we put in some money, they put in some money, and we end up having a protected parcel [of farmland].”
Between 1998 and 2008, from which data was readily available, the town received over $7 million in grants through the program, helping it to preserve about 470 acres, she said.
Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean Walter said the funding comes at the perfect time, as the town as exhausted it available CPF funds — making this grant program one of the few options the town has at protecting farmland.
“I am very happy to hear it, it is surely needed,” he said. “Hopefully the town will be able to apply for these grants.”
With no available funding to pay for remaining costs — because the allowable state contribution is a maximum of 87.5 percent of the total — he said the town could potentially seek funding sources from the county.
The grant program has also been streamlined, cutting back on the documents required and creating milestones to ensure projects reach completion under “a more practical timeframe,” according to the release.
“In previous contracts, the average length of time between grant application and landowner payment was far too lengthy to build predictability into the process,” the release reads.
Ms. Spiro said the town’s most recent project perfectly displays limitations of the prior process.
The town was awarded about $530,500 in 2008 to be used towards preserving Marratooka North Farm, an 18-acre farm on Main Road in Mattituck, however the project was not completed until July 2013, when the grant funing actually came in.
The parcel joins about 50 acres of protected land to its west, and another 40 to its east, compiling a more than 100-acre block of protected farmland, she said.
Both Supervisor Walter, who worked on the program during his tenure as the towns deputy attorney, and Anne Marie Prudenti, the current deputy attorney said the process was an onerous one, though Ms. Prudenti said state officials were more than helpful throughout the process.
Ms. Prudenti said in the past, Riverhead had hired the Peconic Land Trust to help them with the application process.
The town has received over $2 million in grant funding, with its most recent grant issued in 2007, she said.
Tim Caufield, vice president of the land trust said he was happy the program had been opened up to preservation organizations.
“It is something the [state] Land Trust Alliance has been working toward for years,” he said. “Our [chapter] spent a lot of time up in Albany working towards improving the rules for the program and getting funding.”
Mr. Caufield said the nonprofit will still partner with the town on many of its projects, and likely applying for grant funding on projects the town many not be interested in, as to avoid creating competition when both have a common goal — preserving farmland.
“That would be our initial effort. Maybe the town may just not be interested in one parcel or another for some reason,” he said.
According to the governor’s office, when offered, the state received requests for three-times the available funding on average, and is anticipating even higher demand this year.
According to the governor’s office, when offered, the state received requests for three-times the available funding on average, and is anticipating even higher demand this year.
“Farming supports jobs, businesses and economic activity in communities across the state, ultimately representing a cornerstone of our state’s economy,” Mr. Cuomo said. “This funding will help to make sure that farms are kept in production, given the tools to grow, and ensure support for farmers and their families.”