Planning and Development Committee
Environment Committee
AN ACT AUTHORIZING LOCAL AND REGIONAL AGRICULTURAL COUNCILS AND CONCERNING CONSIDERATION OF AGRICULTURE IN LOCAL PLANS OF CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT AND ZONING REGULATIONS
SUMMARY: This act explicitly authorizes municipalities to establish local or regional agricultural councils. (Some municipalities currently have similar entities. )
It also requires a local conservation and development plan to recommend land in the municipality that can be best used for agricultural purposes and include a map showing this use and other proposed land uses. Under existing law, the uses are residential, recreational, commercial, industrial, conservation, and other purposes. By law, in preparing the plan, a planning commission or one of its special committees must consider agriculture protection and preservation.
By law, a municipal land use board must adopt zoning regulations giving reasonable consideration to their impact on agriculture. The act specifies that the statutory definition of agriculture applies (see BACKGROUND).
EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2011
AGRICULTURAL COUNCILS
Under the act, the legislative body of the town, or the board of selectmen where the town meeting is the legislative body, must vote to establish a local council. Two or more towns can agree to form a regional council by a vote of their legislative bodies.
The act permits an agricultural council to:
1. provide information to local farmers and municipal boards and commissions about the benefits of balancing agriculture and other land uses;
2. educate municipal officials about agricultural laws and safety issues;
3. identify grant sources for farmers and municipalities;
4. enable a common understanding of agriculture among all municipal departments;
5. provide information and guidance about agriculture-related zoning issues;
6. support local, regional, and state vocational agricultural programs;
7. provide conflict resolution and advisory services;
8. identify innovative opportunities for agriculture; and
9. create a climate that supports agriculture's economic viability in the municipality.
BACKGROUND
Definition of Agriculture
By law, agriculture includes soil cultivation; dairying; forestry; and raising or harvesting any agricultural or horticultural commodity, including raising, shearing, feeding, caring for, training, and managing livestock, including horses, bees, poultry, fur-bearing animals, and wildlife. It also includes:
1. raising or harvesting of oysters, clams, mussels, other molluscan shellfish or fish (aquaculture);
2. operating, managing, conserving, improving, or maintaining a farm and its buildings, tools, and equipment, or salvaging timber or clearing land of brush or other debris left by a storm, as an incident to such farming operations;
3. producing or harvesting maple syrup, maple sugar, or any agricultural commodity, including lumber, as an incident to ordinary farming operations;
4. harvesting mushrooms;
5. hatching poultry;
6. constructing, operating, or maintaining ditches, canals, reservoirs, or waterways used exclusively for farming; and
7. handling, planting, drying, packing, packaging, processing, freezing, grading, storing, or delivering to storage, market, or a carrier for transporting to market or for direct sale (a) any agricultural or horticultural commodity incident to ordinary farming operations or (b) in the case of fruits and vegetables, incident to the preparation of such fruits or vegetables for market or direct sale (CGS § 1-1(q)).
Related Law
By law, the agriculture commissioner, when requested, may advise a municipality, state agency, tax assessor, or landowner, on (1) what constitutes agriculture or farming under the statutes and (2) the classification of land as farmland or open space (CGS § 22-4c).
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