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Annual 30-Day Period to Add Active Farmland to

Tompkins County’s NYS Certified Agricultural Districts

NYS Agricultural District Law allows the annual addition of actively farmed land to existing Agricultural Districts. Tompkins County has designated February 1^st as the start of the annual 30-day period for landowners to request their land be added to an agricultural district.

The purpose of Agricultural Districts is to encourage the continued use of farmland for agricultural production. The program is a combination of incentives and protections to forestall conversion of farmland to non-agricultural uses; generally, these are:

1. Preferential real property tax treatment (agricultural assessment and special benefit assessment)

2. Protections against overly restrictive local laws

3. Protections against government funded acquisition

4. Protections against construction projects

5. Protections against private nuisance suits involving agricultural practices

Most agricultural Land in Tompkins County is already in an agricultural District. However, if your land was recently put back into production, and is now predominantly active farmland, you might like to request its addition to one of the County’s existing Agricultural Districts. Request for Inclusion forms must be submitted by March 2^nd; forms cannot be accepted for consideration this year after March 2^nd.

For more information, or to obtain a Request for Inclusion form, contact Debbie Teeter at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County by phone at 607-272-2292 or by email at DLT22@cornell.edu.