Onondaga County

New York’s Agricultural Districts Law was enacted in 1971 to “conserve, protect, and encourage the development and improvement of its agricultural land for production of food and other agricultural products, and as valued natural and ecological resources which provide needed open spaces for clean air sheds and aesthetic purposes.”

Responsibility for the creation of agricultural districts and the ongoing maintenance of district boundaries lies within the authority of the State’s county legislative bodies. The Onondaga County Legislature, with the assistance of Agriculture and Farmland Protection Board and the Onondaga County Department of Planning, oversee this process including required eight-year reviews and annual additions (inclusions).

There are four agricultural districts in Onondaga County that encompass approximately 11,192 parcels on 200,848 acres of land in 23 municipalities including 17 towns and five villages. Districts are required by the law to consist predominantly (more than 50 percent) of viable agricultural land.

Viable agricultural land is defined by the law as land that is highly suitable for a farm operation. A farm operation is the land and on-farm buildings, equipment, manure processing and handling facilities, and practices which contribute to the production, preparation and marketing of crops, and livestock and livestock products as a commercial enterprise. Horse boarding, equine, timber, and compost, mulch or other biomass crops also qualify under specific statutory rules. A comprehensive list of specific commodities and special provisions are detailed in the law.

To qualify as a commercial enterprise, a farm operation must generally consist of at least seven acres of land used in agricultural production that generates an average gross sales value of $10,000 or more annually for the preceding two years. Exceptions and additional requirements are detailed in the law.

Farm operations within an agricultural district are afforded the following benefits and protections:

• requires state agencies to modify administrative regulations and procedures to encourage the maintenance of viable farming;
• limits the exercise of eminent domain and other public acquisitions, and the advance of public funds for certain construction activities;
• limits the power to impose benefit assessments, special ad valorem levies, or other rates or fees in certain benefit areas or improvement districts such as water, sewer, and non-farm drainage;
• limits unreasonable local restrictions and regulations of farm operations;
• requires municipal agricultural data statement reviews for certain planning and zoning actions that impact a farm operation;
• provides Right-to-Farm provisions for protection from private nuisance suits;
• requires agricultural district disclosure notices for real estate transactions involving property within an agricultural district;
• establishes the agricultural assessment program that allows reduced property tax bills for eligible farmland in agricultural production (which is not required to be in a district); and
• provides for a five-year rather than eight-year conversion penalty period for landowners who receive an agricultural assessment.
  
  

Being within an agricultural district does not:

• restrict the use of property for agricultural production, or otherwise prohibit other uses;
• change the local municipal zoning designation;
• restrict the sale or lease of property; or
• directly reduce or increase tax assessments—owners of agricultural must apply to the local tax assessor to receive an annual agricultural assessment