Town of Chatham Agricultural Protection Plan Adopted September 17, 2009

A Process, Not an Event Started as part of the town’s comprehensive planning process Pilot site for Glynwood’s Keep Farming Program First study done in – Farming profile, economic impact, local food system – Town adopted goal of “zero net loss of working farmland” NYS Ag & Markets funding for Ag Protection Plan – GIS mapping – Cost of services study – Town, County, and State recommendations Ag Protection plan adopted/appended to Comp Plan Follow-up study currently underway

#1: Get Farmers on Board Invited every farmer we could find to meeting before we started Steering Committee with all types of farming represented; let farmers lead Got our “anchor tenant” on board early You’ll never get everyone

#2: Use a Structured Process Develop your roadmap up front – Steps, outcomes, roles and responsibilities, timeline, etc. Helps to recruit people and get the work done Be flexible 80% rule Guiding principles

Guiding Principles Recognize that farming won’t look the same in the future Start with actions at the local level Form partnerships for increased effectiveness Be focused, realistic, and doable Start with the foundation, build on it later Be aligned with other parts of the comprehensive plan And start working on implementation immediately

#3: Data Matters Profile of farming Economic impact Land use patterns Local food system Cost of services Important issues Trends over time

#4: Be Inclusive Everyone is welcome to participate Participation comes in many forms Forums at every critical point – listen! Structure things so that it’s easy to participate Use a broad definition of farming and consider all system components

#5: Be Transparent Share information at every step Use a variety of communication vehicles Err on the side of over- communicating Include legislators from the beginning

But Then What Happened? We were done far in advance of the comp plan So we just started doing things And we leveraged the data from the study in every way we could Very helpful in making a good case and getting funding Things were going smoothly until…

Unexpected Problems Economy tanked – and with it went the major opportunity we had identified! Town has been slow to make zoning changes – and our recommendations are connected to other parts of the comp plan Many things are out of our control Struggle to redefine the role of the Ag Partnership

Getting Back on Track Recommitted to the overall goal Continuing to collect data, educate, communicate Positioned to take the opportunity when PDR funds are available Eager to see the County Ag Plan