$1.1M set aside to preserve farmland
NORRISTOWN >> Montgomery County has formally set aside more than $1.1 million for farmland preservation in 2017.
The county commissioners unanimously approved a measure Thursday that will place $1,103,066 in a restricted account for the purpose of purchasing agricultural easements and inspecting preserved farms.
“In our Montco 2040 plan, we talk about the importance of farmland for a variety of reasons. It’s a big portion of our economy. We have $25 million in sales from our farms as of the last agricultural census,” said Montgomery County Planning Commission Executive Director Jody Holton.
The county plans to use the funds to preserve at least 240 acres of farmland each year, part of the Montco 2040 goal of preserving an additional 6,000 acres. Since the program was implemented in 1990, a total of 158 farms on 9,200 acres have been preserved.
The farmland preservation program buys agricultural easements from the owners. The farmers are then allowed to sell the farm in the future,
but the land is only usable as farmland.
“It assists the farmers with their business and helps keep that part of our local economy stable,” Holton said.
The county will leverage about $2 million in state funding for the preservation program, according to Holton. However, many farms are too small to qualify for state funding for preservation. The county aims to step up the number of smaller farms it will preserve as well.
Of 29 farms currently on the waitlist, 19 of them will not qualify for state funding.
“Those farms below 35 acres we would only be able to preserve with county funds, unless they have crops of unique significance to the county,” Holton said. “It has been difficult to do up to this point with the amount the county had set aside for funding.”
According to Holton’s presentation at the meeting, there are about 600 farms in Montgomery County that amount to more than 30,000 acres.
The Montgomery County Planning Commission will be hosting a conference on farming in the county Feb. 10 at the Franconia Heritage Restaurant Banquet Hall in Souderton. Holton said the conference will focus on the importance of preserving farmland in the county and what farmers can do to preserve, protect and diversify their land.