Spotlight on Zoning Practice
Aiding the Small Farm Evolution
Winter has traditionally been a downtime for farmers. They take stock of their last harvest and begin planning for the next cycle. But farming is a tough business, and the financial risks are especially high for small farmers. There is a sober truth behind the on-farm holiday markets, sleigh rides, and cut-your-own-tree spots many people enjoy this time of year. Most small farmers depend on off-farm income, and supplemental farm-related income can be critical to small farm survival.
As Sabrina Torres notes in the December issue of Zoning Practice, "Preventing the Extinction of Small Farms," zoning has a mixed track record when it comes to farmland preservation. The zoning techniques that planners and local officials have previously used to protect farms need a refresh to help small farmers evolve their operations to stay afloat.
Broaden the Agricultural Zoning Box
Agricultural zoning has traditionally relied on two basic techniques: establishing large minimum lot sizes and prohibiting most (if not all) non-agricultural uses. While these techniques have proven effective in some contexts, they often aren't well-calibrated to serve the needs of small farmers.
As Torres explains, small farmers can't compete on price with the big farms and must either find new sources of revenue or focus their operations on less price-sensitive crops or products. The problem is that traditional approaches to farmland preservation can make it difficult for small farmers to generate supplemental on-farm income or staff more profitable and more labor-intensive operations, like organic or regenerative farming.
As a remedy, Torres recommends broadening the permissible uses in agricultural districts to include agritourism, direct sales activities, and farm-worker housing. And because farm structures can serve different purposes throughout the year, Torres suggests explicitly authorizing mixed-use structures that can combine agricultural, commercial, or residential uses either simultaneously or seasonally.
Give Pilot Projects a Chance
For many small farmers, experimentation will be key to their survival. It's hard to know what new farming technique or on-farm experience might increase production or profitability until you try. For example, five years ago, very few farmers or communities were thinking about combining crop production or animal grazing with solar power production. Now there are dozens of operational agrivoltaic projects across the country and good reasons to be optimistic about normalizing this approach. While zoning is, by nature, averse to novel uses, that's where pilot projects come in, says Torres.
Farmers can use pilot projects to test new practices that may help them remain viable. Similarly, planners and local officials can use pilot projects to test whether and how new practices or activities will affect the community's quality of life (positively or negatively). Finally, piloting an approach can be an important part of building community acceptance for novel (but mostly benign or beneficial) land uses or activities.
There are at least two distinct approaches to supporting pilot projects through zoning. The first is the tried-and-true method of temporary use permits, which authorize otherwise impermissible activities on a temporary basis. The second approach is to tie zoning authorization to participation in a separate program for pilot projects, where participants may be eligible for financial or regulatory incentives.
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