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New farm preservation rules cause struggles in Harford
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BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Harford County boasts the third-best agricultural preservation program in the state and one of the top 10 in the nation. But officials fretted Tuesday over whether they’d be able to meet strict new guidelines to keep state funding.
Under the 2006 Agricultural Stewardship Act, counties that want to keep getting state money to preserve farms from development have to designate “priority preservation areas” and demonstrate detailed plans for saving 80 percent of the undeveloped land within them.
But Harford was struggling to choose an area that has the right balance of preserved land and farms that can be saved — especially given the decline in home sales that pay for most agricultural-preservation programs.
“A lot of people want to see the preservation area expanded,” said Pete Gutwald, Harford’s director of planning and zoning. “We should be innovative, but we also have to be realistic and financially manageable.”
If counties don’t meet the state’s criteria, their share of state tax funding for preservation will drop from 75 percent to 33 percent, and they’ll no longer be eligible to participate in other state programs, Gutwald said.
Howard County dropped out of the state program last year, but not because of the stricter standards, said Kimberly Flowers, deputy director with Howard’s department of planning and zoning.
Like Harford, part of Howard’s “transfer tax” on home sales goes toward the county’s preservation program, but officials had enough money in reserve that the economy has not yet had an effect, Flowers said.
Baltimore County will have no problem meeting the requirements because its preservation money comes from the county’s general fund, and it has enough undeveloped land to put into the program, said Land Preservation Administrator Walter Lippincott Jr.
Harford’s priority area will encompass 40,000 acres around the lower Deer Creek watershed, where the 80 percent goal is already met by including parts of Susquehanna and Rocks state parks in the equation.
But state officials might be skeptical if Harford was gaming the system, said farmer Charles Day of Darlington.
“I’m asking you to create amendments that will make this more acceptable to the state,” Day said. “If you do not, this will be one of the easiest budget items to be taken off the table.”
Councilman Richard Slutzky, an Aberdeen Republican, said the new requirements would take a shrinking pool of preservation funding away from farms outside the narrow priority area. Under the program, farms inside the priority area get five extra points on the 300-point scale used to determine which land is preserved.
msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com
Comments from Examiner Readers
6:04 PM MST on Mon., Jul. 7, 2008 re: "Maryland farmers squeezed by soaring fuel, fertilizer costs"
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10:08 AM MST on Fri., May. 9, 2008
re: "Program would shift farmers’ excess water to municipalities"
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2:02 PM MST on Mon., Jan. 21, 2008
re: "Harford has state’s only robotic milking machine"
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9:03 AM MST on Tue., Jul. 10, 2007
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12:17 PM MST on Fri., Jun. 15, 2007
re: "Harford has state’s only robotic milking machine"
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11:53 AM MST on Fri., Jun. 15, 2007
re: "Harford has state’s only robotic milking machine"
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9:11 AM MST on Fri., Jun. 15, 2007
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12:49 PM MST on Tue., May. 22, 2007
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4:57 AM MST on Thu., May. 3, 2007
re: "Cost of milk leaves gas prices in the dust"
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Examiner Reader said:
Rising fuel costs. Chineses drilling 85 miles off our coast while we import. No new refinery within 30 years Do not worry Obama has a tax plan to make it all ok.
2 agree | 3 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
This is the unfortunate price we pay by thinking and acting that gasoline prices would never change. Wait until winter hits because if it's cold, our prices are going to jump again. It's time to invest in renewable energies, I'd be more than happy to see O'Mally push for these over the new Calvert Cliffs Power Plants. Maybe farmers should be cut a deal to go back to solar and wind power for home and allow more money to be spared for fuel costs.
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Examiner Reader said:
Then what happens when the farmer's neighbor's well runs dry?
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Examiner Reader said:
why does the cow look green?
113 agree | 119 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
The cows are out of luck, now that we are using corn for fuel. What a plan. It sounds good during good growing seasons, but what do you do now? We need to stop screwing around with band aids to fix our fuel supply problems and get serious about resources that are proven to work. Nuclear power, new refineries and drilling.
237 agree | 269 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
I saw my grandfather hand milk cows in a barn with only an oil lantern for light. What's the world coming to!!!
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Examiner Reader said:
Isn't it a little demeaning to refer to beautiful dairy cows as "toddlers" and a magnificent robotic milker as a "toy". The technology blows my mind that a cow can be milked by a robot. Good for the Dallams! Kate makes the BEST ice cream in the world at Broom's Bloom Dairy Store.
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Examiner Reader said:
Very interesting article on the robot. However, cows surely get more than "a pellet" while being milked. One pellet would be about the size of a piece of dogfood and would hardly lure the cows to the robot. I hope the cows get a good portion of pellets dumped in front of them when they enter the robot.
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Examiner Reader said:
That doesn't seem like a lot of milk production. are you missing a few zeros? Tim Feeser Carroll County Commissioners office
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Huh? said:
Doesn't the government subsidize milk? What an economic ripoff of citizens. Produce extra milk, waste lots of it then charge more for the little bit that is left.....amazing!
424 agree | 294 disagree
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