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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/03/2021 Town of Southold Agricultural Advisory Committee Meeting rd Minutes of March 3, 2021 Members Present Members Absent Guests Tom Stevenson - Chairperson John P. Sepenoski Sara Nappa (Zoom) Chris Baiz (Zoom) Mark VanBourgondien Al Krupski (Zoom) Doug Cooper Jim Glover (Zoom) Karen Rivara (Zoom) Anthony Sannino (Zoom) John B. Sepenoski Jr. Scott Russell (TB Liaison) Opening: rd The Agricultural Advisory Committee meeting was called to order on March 3, 2021 at 7:07 pm in the Southold Town Hall meeting hall. Next Meeting(s): th The next regular AAC meeting will be on Wednesday, March 17, 2021 at 7:00 pm in the Southold Town Hall meeting hall and via Zoom. Aquaculture Program Update:  The SCALP program continuation passed.  Per Al Krupski the review went well. It took a lot longer than anticipated but this was due to COVID restrictions and budget concerns. But it also allowed more time for discussions with all interested parties.  Karen Rivara was a huge help in getting the program approved.  Next thing to discuss is the buffer zones. The state imposed a 1000’ buffer that will need to be gone over. Unfortunately, the state has to be involved to change to buffer zone, the county cannot just change it. And the state will have to reopen the whole program for debate if that happens.  The renewal was for 10 years. Certain designated areas were added and some were taken away.  The old lease board that was in charge did not have knowledge of the bays, so they are hoping to eventually have one person per town on the lease board that has knowledge of the bays and one representative from Cornell Cooperative.  Karen sand although the process was very long and 43% of the acreage was lost the outcome was still good. The gear limit was not passed which was also good.  Orient Yacht Club was successful in removing certain areas and are still trying to fight the gear. Discussion of Land and Agriculture Preservation Page 1 | 3 Town of Southold Agricultural Advisory Committee Meeting rd Minutes of March 3, 2021  The County farmland preserve funds are only about $8 million a year and the rest (about 2/3) goes to debt service. A lot of funds were borrowed in the beginning of the program. Also, not many parcels are looking to take the offers.  Riverhead also has no money to purchase land, there money is also going to debt service.  Currently only .25% of sales tax goes to the county for land preservation only not farmland preservation. Hopefully in 2030 this can be changed so farmland and land preservation each have a revenue stream.  On the south fork they have money but no land left to buy.  The North Fork the income to the preservation committee hasn’t gone up a lot, but hopefully this year with all the home purchases recently it will.  Also, the Cliffside project in Cutchogue will be bringing in some revenue soon. Peddlers Code:  Discussion on the proposed changes to the Peddlers Code to sell flowers.  Current restrictions for a farm stand are that 60% must be home grown and 40% can be retail and for a roadside stand 100% must be homegrown.  Restrictions are also in place for how big the stand is, what type of structure, how far away from the road it has to be, and some others. Some farms are grandfathered in and do not need to follow the current code guidelines.  The old code was the primary thing you sell has to be products you grow, new code you have to grow what you sell, nothing processed can be sold.  Peddlers do not have to move can stay parked for a prolonged period of time. It would hard to enforce the rule that they need to move every 15-20 minutes. And the parking time limit is only on public property, private property there is no limit.  Sarah Nappa states that the peddler would only be selling flowers from North Fork farms so she would be supporting the farming community. Maybe have a public hearing to discuss.  A problem with opening the code for one person is that it opens the door for so many others and no one can know the impact that it would have. It is probably not possible to only open this option to flower sellers.  Although this person would be buying wholesale and selling retail then maybe she should open a flower shop? Also, what impact would this have on the current brick and mortar flower shops?  Currently Peddlers licenses are renewed every year, maybe try it for one year and see what happens.  If it becomes open for flowers what about other aquaculture and agriculture products and the effect that would have on the rest of the farming community.  It would not be fair to change the code for one person without thinking how that change can really impact the agricultural and aquacultural community. Page 2 | 3 Town of Southold Agricultural Advisory Committee Meeting rd Minutes of March 3, 2021 New Business:  Farmland committee member position still needs to be filled (Steve Mudds Position) Executive Session: MOTION to move into executive session made by Doug Cooper at 8:40 pm, seconded by John Sepenoski Jr., ALL in favor MOTION to move out of executive session made by Doug Cooper at 9:00 pm, seconded by John Sepenoski Jr., ALL in favor . Adjournment: MOTION to adjourn at 9:01 pm made by Tom Stevenson, seconded by Doug Cooper, ALL in favor. Minutes respectfully submitted by: Laura Arena Page 3 | 3