Resource Kit for Preserving Rural Character

1998 Annual Report for LNE98-109

Project Type: Research and Education
Funds awarded in 1998: $6,000.00
Projected End Date: 12/31/2000
Region: Northeast
State: New Hampshire
Project Leader:
Jean Conklin
University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension

Resource Kit for Preserving Rural Character

Summary

Summary
To maintain rural character in New Hampshire is to sustain agriculture, both as a vital part of the visual landscape and as a viable profession. Despite a community’s Master Plan mandate to maintain rural character, planners are often caught between preserving open space and encouraging development. Often there is a conflict between the town’s goals and local government policies that inadvertently create barriers to agricultural enterprises. Preserving Rural Character Through Agriculture: A Resource Kit for Planners offers insights, tools and resources to prevent the unintended negative consequences of land use regulations and decisions on agriculture, along with specific suggestions for enhancing and supporting agriculture. It also gives farmers resources to deal with planning and other regulatory boards when negotiating solutions to a regulatory conflict.
The content of the Kit attests to the economic, cultural and esthetic value of agriculture to communities. Professional layout and graphics that make the Kit attractive, user-friendly and desirable as an engaging exhibit support this message of value. Distribution to New Hampshire towns and cities is through participants who attend the Is your community farm friendly?” program and who are agreeable to using the kit in their town to foster change. Each kit is numbered, so the use of kit materials can be tracked.
The NH Coalition for Sustaining Agriculture used a collaborative approach to kit development and implementation that involved state and regional planners, historic preservation staff, farmers, planning board members, Cooperative Extension and other USDA, state and private agricultural organizations. This approach was key to informing and involving diverse, especially non-farm, constituencies in supporting farm friendly municipal regulation.

Objectives
1. Present a rationale for supporting agriculture.
2. Provide case studies of planning actions adversely affecting agriculture.
3. Provide videotaped case studies of actions supporting agriculture.
4. Redefine agriculture to include new growth in nontraditional products.
5. Supply existing planning strategies for sustaining agriculture.
6. Present a new model for land-use regulations to sustain agriculture
7. Provide references to additional sources both in print and on the Internet.

Results
Project objectives were accomplished through development of a Resource Kit for professional and citizen planners, a traveling exhibit and a series of “Is your community farm friendly?” training sessions.
The first section of the kit, “Preserving Rural Character,” presents a rationale for supporting agriculture. Beginning with a bulletin of the same title by Lorraine Stuart Merrill, journalist and dairy farmer, the section includes articles from the Commissioner of Agriculture, Markets and Food, The Director of the Audubon Society and the Deputy Director of the NH Division of Historic Resources. It notes common friction points between municipal land use regulation and agriculture, debunks popularly held “myths” about New Hampshire agriculture, and sets forth strategies for how to preserve rural character and foster local farms through agricultural friendly land-use regulation.
Promoting Agriculture in Your Community,” the second section of the Kit, by Gary Matteson, anemone grower, gives real life examples depicting the complexity of issues between agricultural enterprises and municipal regulations. It is followed in section three by programming tools that can be used to raise agriculture/rural character/municipal regulation issues in a community: a checklist to determine whether a town is agriculture-friendly- and a skit, “Is Our Town Farm-Friendly,” that helps frame and surface the issues for participants.
A videotape is provided as an additional programming tool to challenge communities to take steps to make their regulatory environment farm friendly. It reflects themes presented in the Resource Kit and encourages action. Gail McWilliam, NH Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food, Agricultural Development Specialist and Gary Matteson, developed the video.
The fourth section of the kit addresses some specific conflicts between farming and municipal land use regulation (e.g. signage, housing, on-farm retail sales) and identifies possible changes to the regulatory framework. The article is supported by reference to and inclusion of state laws pertaining to agriculture. Other information in the kit also identifies conflicts and offers guidelines for zoning and site review regulations that are agriculture friendly.
The kit’s “Resource Directory,” by Linda Ray Wilson, Deputy NH Historic Preservation Officer, is a compilation of resource contacts, references and web sites for additional information about preserving rural character through agriculture.
Partners in the development process included the New Hampshire Office of State Planning, the Rockingham Regional Planning Commission, the New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food, the Division of Historical Resources and the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension. In addition to SARE, funding for the Resource Kit was made possible through grants from the Northeast Farm Credit AgEnhancement Program, the New Hampshire Farm Bureau Federation and Champions of New Hampshire Farms. Additional financial support came from the Farm Service Agency, Liberty Mutual Group, the Timberland Company and Warren, Morris and Madison, Ltd.

Impacts
The Kit is designed to make two basic contributions. First, we designed it to inspire and give people (farmer and non-farmer, professional and lay planners) tools to undertake a review of town or city land use regulations in order to identify conflicts with agricultural operations and take steps to correct them (pro-active application). Second, the kit provides farmers with tools to deal with planning and other regulatory boards when negotiating solutions to a conflict in which they find themselves (re-active application).
The Kit gives farmers strategic understanding of land use regulation conflicts, the rational for approaching those conflicts and state laws which support agriculture in these conflicts. It also directs farmers to appropriate resource contacts for assistance in dealing with these issues. Extension, NRCS and FSA staff have received Kit training and are able to support farmers, either directly or through referrals, in regulatory conflicts. On-going training at Farm Bureau conferences and other agricultural venues continues to spread understanding of the pro-active and re-active uses of the Kit to the farm community.
By mid 2000, the kit will have been used at more than 20 educational events, attended by more than 800 people. Additionally, the kit has been distributed to a broad spectrum of planning, land use, agricultural and conservation agencies and organizations including USDA agricultural agencies, conservation districts, farmer organizations, Cooperative Extension, state agencies and non-profits. Because the kits are numbered and can be tracked by town, future evaluation of the implementation and impact on a town’s rural character can be done.
Feedback from towns requesting the Resource Kit has been very positive with two towns committing to a farm friendly process.

Areas Needing Additional Study
It is clear while agriculture friendly ordinances help, they cannot solve the whole problem. Other tools are necessary. Renewed interest in and funding for agricultural easements is happening in New Hampshire and the Land Link concept is being explored as a way to facilitate the transition of farms from one owner to the next.

Reported April 2000.

Collaborators:

Caroline Robinson

Berry Hill Farm
NH
Gary Matteson

NE Anemones
NH
Lynda Brushett

UNH
NH
Gail McWilliam

NH Department of Agriculture, Markets & Food
Linda Ray Wilson

NH Division of Historic Resources
Steve Whitman

Office of State Planning
Lorraine Merrill

OSP
NH
Glenn Greenwood

RPC
NH