Planning

State Offers Funding for Municipalities to Protect Farmland

Cattaraugus County's towns, villages, and cities can now apply for up to $25,000 in funding to help develop their own agricultural and farmland protection plans or to add agricultural protection components to their existing comprehensive plan. This is the first time that local municipalities are eligible for farmland protection planning grants - only counties have been eligible in the past. In late August, the Commissioner of Agriculture & Markets approved Cattaraugus County's Agricultural and Farmland Protection Plan, thus making our municipalities eligible for these grants. Interested municipalities are eligible for grants of up to $25,000 or 75 percent of the cost of developing a local protection plan, whichever is less.

"Home rule is the cornerstone of land use planning in New York State," states New York State Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker. "One of the most important duties granted by the legislature to a municipal government is the authority to undertake comprehensive planning and to regulate land use. Local government can play a vital role in farmland protection by creating a supportive business environment for agriculture by insuring that comprehensive plans and land use regulations contain clear language and explicit policies that are supportive of the local agriculture industry."

The purpose of this grant program is to provide an economic incentive to municipalities to do local planning for agriculture that will strive to maintain the economic viability of the State's agricultural industry and its supporting land base and to protect the environmental and landscape preservation values associated with agriculture. Plans should identify the location of farmland proposed to be protected, the value of that land to the local economy, the value of that land as open space, consequences of possible conversion, and the level of conversion pressure on the proposed land.

A copy of the Municipal Agricultural and Farmland Protection Plan Development Request for Application (RFA) is available on the Department's website at www.agmkt.state.ny.us under "Funding Opportunities". Grants will be awarded on a first come, first serve basis.

An applicant workshop will be conducted by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets at the Erie County Cornell Cooperative Extension Office, 21 South Grove St., East Aurora, NY on October 23rd at 6:30 PM. This will be an interactive teleconference from Saratoga County.

For more information contact Paul Bishop, Planner, at Cattaraugus County Department of Economic Development, Planning and Tourism at 716-938-2369 or email at

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