Agricultural Commission Not Ready to Give Up on Right to Farm Ordinance

Durham's Agriculture Commission doesn't appear ready to give up on a Right to Farm ordinance. 

At the July 23 Board of Selectmen meeting, commission members said they felt that a resolution recently drafted by Town Attorney Robert Poliner in place of the commission's proposed ordinance does not go far enough to support local agriculture.

"The resolution to us… it was more of a mission statement for the Ag commission than it was any statement that we support agriculture in our town," commission member Fred Mastele said.

Earlier this year, the Agricultural Commission  that would piggyback the state's Right to Farm law, a statute that protects farmers from certain nuisance laws.

Following a public hearing in March the commission was asked to revise the ordinance while taking into consideration feedback from residents which included concern that farming would be interpreted in the ordinance as being superior to other uses of land.

In recent months, Poliner met with Warren Herzig, Agricultural Commission chairman, to draft a resolution but on Monday commission members appeared unwilling to accept Poliner's interpretation of the ordinance.

"I did not expect a complete rewrite that took away a lot of, what I thought was the meat, that we had built [into the ordinance]," said Herzig.

All along, First Selectman Laura Francis has said she has concerns about opening the town up to liability due to a lack of enforcement within the ordinance.

"What concerns me is could any part of that ordinance put us in a tough position in terms of litigation," she asked.

Several commission members as well as selectmen Steve Levy said disputes between farmers and property owners would be handled by the town's boards and commissions, a process they said already takes place.

"If there is a complaint by an abutting property [owner], they could go to the board or commission that they would need to to address their complaint," Mastele said.

An ordinance, commission members said, would reinforce the town's committment to agriculture.

"If we want to encourage people to come here and develop what lands we do have here still available to use it agriculturally, we need to have something that would draw people here and the resolution itself won't do it," said Mastele.

Poliner agreed to work with the commission to create mitigation guidelines that could be used in the event of a dispute. He also recommended that the commission post information about the nusiance statue on the town's website.

"I am committed to making a formal statement, in one shape or another, that we are an agricultural friendly town. I just want to make sure we do it the right way," Francis said.