Article 25-AA of the Agriculture and Markets Law authorizes the creation of local agricultural districts pursuant to landowner initiative, preliminary county review, state certification, and county adoption. As of April 2002, 341 agricultural districts existed statewide, containing approximately 21,500 farms and 8.6 million acres (about 30 percent of the State's total land area).The purpose of agricultural districting is to encourage the continued use of farmland for agricultural production.
Lewis County Agricultural Districts
Agricultural District #1 was created in Lewis County in 1975; it encompassed 20,304 acres of land and was located within the towns of Lewis, West Turin, Leyden, and Lyonsdale. Agricultural District's #2, 3, 4 and 5 were designated over the next three years and encompassed almost, if not all of the active agricultural land within the county. By law, each of the five districts in Lewis County must undergo a recertification process every eight years. This recertification process verifies that the majority of the land within the district is active agricultural land.
Lewis County Agricultural District Map
In 2008, a county request was approved by NYS Ag and Markets to complete a review of all five Agricultural Districts and consolidation into one new district. Currently, there is one active agricultural district in Lewis County, Agricultural District #6. Agricultural District #6 contains 246,141.57 acres, and the anniversary date for recertification of this district is February 15, 2016.
Annual Inclusion Period
Property can only be removed from the Agricultural District during the eight year recertification process. However, active agricultural land that is not already in the Agricultural District can be added to the district during the annual inclusion period. This period has been designated in Lewis County to occur every year from November 15 to December 15.
For more information about Agricultural Districts in New York State, go to
http://www.agmkt.state.ny.us/AP/agservices/agdistricts.html
Michele Ledoux, Chair
Lewis County
Lewis County
