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St. Lawrence County accepting applications to increase amount of farm property protected from non-farm uses

Posted 5/6/13

St. Lawrence County is accepting applications in May to increase the amount of farm property protected against being converted to other uses. Landowners seeking to add property to Agricultural …

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St. Lawrence County accepting applications to increase amount of farm property protected from non-farm uses

Posted

St. Lawrence County is accepting applications in May to increase the amount of farm property protected against being converted to other uses.

Landowners seeking to add property to Agricultural Districts 1 and 2 must submit a form with information about the property to the County Planning Office. The tax parcel number, acreage of the property, and a description of the land must be included in the request. Blank forms can be obtained at local municipal offices, by calling the County Planning Office at 379-2292, or by visiting http://www.stlawco.org/Departments/Planning/AgDistrictMap. All applications must be submitted or postmarked no later than Thursday, May 30.

The County’s Ag Districts program protects farmland and farming activities. Agricultural District 1 primarily consists of agricultural lands in the western and southern portions of the county, and Agricultural District 2 spans the county’s northern and eastern regions. The districts combined contain more than 590,000 acres, and at least 51 percent of this property consists of viable agricultural lands.

The county is only considering requests to add property to an ag district. Requests to remove land are accepted only during an ag district’s eight-year review period. The next eight year review for Ag District 2 is 2014 and Ag District 1 is 2016.

For more information, contact Matilda Larson in the St. Lawrence County Planning Office at 379-2292.

Agricultural districts are intended to help keep farmland in agricultural production with incentives and protections that discourage the conversion of farmland to non-agricultural uses.