NEW SCOTLAND — Residents now need a permit to farm seven acres or less, a zoning change that is not consistent with Agriculture and Markets Law, according to an Ag and Markets representative.

The amendment to New Scotland’s zoning code was passed, 4 to 1, at a town board meeting on Aug. 10. The amendment changed the definition of “farming activity, personal” from agricultural activity on less than five acres to less that seven acres. This is only applicable outside of the town’s agricultural district. The change is effective as soon as filed with the county.

Supervisor Doug LaGrange, who proposed the amendment this spring, said it was based on the state Agriculture and Markets Law’s qualifications for agricultural assessments, where land generally must consist of seven acres or more for an assessment.

“In a sense the two laws are apples to oranges,” said LaGrange, explaining the change was meant to be consistent with the state law but need not match it.

Laura Ten Eyck, the town board member who voted against the change, said that, after LaGrange spoke with Robert Somers of the Department of Agriculture and Markets, it was revealed the town could not enforce the law in an agricultural district, and so the law was amended to only apply outside of the district.

Ten Eyck and LaGrange both farm on large tracts of land.

LaGrange says that a farm of any size in the agricultural district is exempt from the requirement for a special-use permit. The zoning code also states that the law does not apply to any farming for personal consumption.

Ten Eyck says she was pleased that LaGrange had met with Somers and amended the law, but she still voted against it because over half the town is in the agricultural district and so it wouldn’t make sense to change the law, but also because she believes it will add an unnecessary step for farms between five and seven acres outside of the district.

“I don’t think we should keep raising the bar for people,” she said.

Ten Eyck says that residents who have agricultural activity on their property or commercial farms that are between five and seven acres will now have to apply for a special-use permit to continue farming, a process that takes a minimum of two months as applicants must present before the board at one monthly meeting and then have a public hearing at another.

“It can get quite complicated,” she said. Ten Eyck mentioned an incident when she was on the planning board in which a family with about an acre of land applied to raise chickens, raising scrutiny from neighbors during the public hearing over why they wanted to raise the birds.

“I feel that the town should be promoting agriculture and farming,” she said.

Ten Eyck also said that the state’s Department of Agriculture and Markets recommends that towns not enforce an acreage requirement.

In an emailed statement to The Enterprise, a representative of the state Department of Agriculture and Markets confirmed that the town had reached out to the department on the matter, and that the town was informed that the proposed zoning change was not consistent with Agriculture and Markets Law. The representative also stated that the law defines a farm as a farm operation when it is a commercial enterprise, regardless of acreage.

In the email, the representative added that, although the department cannot prevent the adoption of conflicting laws by a municipality, it may be asked in the future to review the town’s acreage limitation by a farm on less than seven acres that is also located within an agricultural district.

LaGrange said there had been a few instances that had prompted the need for a change in the zoning code. One instance, he says, involved a farm in the industrial district of the town on the border of another town, where more than five acres existed across the border of the two towns and therefore didn’t need a special-use permit, but drew complaints from the neighbors.

“There was no real way to do anything to get help to the neighbors,” he said, adding that, in order to preserve the town’s rural character, it’s necessary to prevent lawsuits from neighbors.

LaGrange said he hoped with the seven-acre minimum to prevent “problems with the neighbors” and “headaches for the town.”