Ag District No. 6
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 2022, there are 152 agricultural districts is existence statewide, which contain approximately 26,182 farms and 6.5 million farmed acres. The purpose of agricultural districting is to encourage the continued use of farmland for agricultural production.
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. 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 247,978 acres, which increased 160 acres in 2024 alone!
For more information about Agricultural Districts in New York State, go to https://agriculture.ny.gov/land-and-water/agricultural-districts
Benefits
- Limitations on eminent domain usage;
- State agencies are obliged to support the maintenance of viable farming within agricultural districts;
- Restrictions on the placement of solid waste management facilities on land dedicated to agriculture;
- Local governments are required to avoid unreasonable constraints on regulating farm operations when enacting and administering comprehensive plans, local laws, ordinances, rules, and regulations;
- Agricultural landowners may be eligible for an agricultural property tax assessment and/or agricultural property tax exemption provided they comply with certain requirements of NYS Agriculture & Markets Law;
- Agricultural landowners are protected from private nuisance lawsuits if they adhere to sound agricultural practices, as determined by NYS Agriculture & Markets, and disclose the property’s adjacency to or inclusion in an agricultural district to potential buyers
Ag District No. 6 | 8-Year Review
Lewis County Ag District 6 will have the ability to perform the 8- year review in 2032. We had a very successful 8 year review with 1,667.9 acres added to the ag district and 662.288 removed. This resulted in a net change of +1,005.612. Lewis County has roughly 247,814.612 acres enrolled in Ag District 6.
We believe the pressure from solar farms in addition to our effective outreach efforts were the cause for the large participation in the 2024 8 -year review.
The 8 year review is the only chance acreage can be removed from the ag district, however each year land can be added to the district if the land meet the qualifications.
For more information about Agricultural Districts in New York State, go to https://agriculture.ny.gov/land-and-water/agricultural-districts
Ag District 6 Mapper Tool
LC Ag Facts
Lewis County Agricultural Enhancement Plan
This Agricultural Enhancement Plan was developed to ensure that agriculture remains one of Lewis
County’s most important industries. Ultimately, the mission of this Plan is to help promote the sustainability and resiliency of farming in Lewis County. Agriculture is critical not just to the County’s economy, but to Lewis’s rural landscape, community character, environment, and public health. Agriculture is the dominant land use in Lewis County (182,000 acres), a major economic driver ($153 million in sales enters the local economy), and a major employer (787 workers with an annual payroll of $13.2 million).
However, there are still many challenges to overcome. Low milk prices, small profits with high costs, difficulty finding and affording labor, taxes and regulations, lack of a next generation of farmers, limited farm processing infrastructure, and limited marketing of the County and of local farm products are weaknesses that must be overcome. This enhancement plan is designed as an action-oriented plan to help continue to move agriculture forward. The goal of the Lewis County Agricultural Enhancement Plan is to outline the positive steps the County and its partners can take to ensure the long-term health of our farms and farming community.
The foundation of this Plan is input received from farmers and farmland owners, agri-businesses, farm support agencies, and organizations, and from young people who hope to be the next generation of farmers. This input was critical to ensure that this Plan addresses needs specific to Lewis County.
This Plan provides information about current agricultural conditions, a vision for the future, and a detailed set of strategies to be implemented over the next decade. In support of that, it also includes 17 maps, information about agriculture (including economic characteristics, and farm and farmland activities and resources), analysis of farmland conversion pressure, and projections of weather changes that may impact farming.