APB agenda 082102 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

The Decaters' efforts have served as a model for similar initia- tives across the country: CSA farms elsewhere in California, Illinois, New York and Massachusetts have pursued shared equity ownership approaches with varying degrees of support from Equity Trust. Matthei believes the issue is relevant to all types of farmers. "Competition from other market forces for farmland affects all farmers and would -be farmers," he says. "We're past the point where a farmer can count on his or her children to take over the farm. The transfer of farmland from one family to another is and will be commonplace. We need to be prepared for those transfers." 104 B.H. Partners & Friends: (from left) The Decoteri (Stephen, Alexander, Christopher, Nicholas and Gloria) .celebrate the .transition from caretakers to , farm owners along with rancher Richard Wilson, from whom they purchased the land, and Chuck Matthe!, .executive director of Equity Trust. POLICY REPORT: WHAT'S IN THAT SILO? Farms & Cell Phone Infrastructure Rolling hills surrounded by water. give'Peninsula Township, Michigan, an ideal and unique "The public good is climate— moderate temperatures 'and good air drainage —for growing fruit. In fact, Peninsula served by keeping towers Township, not far from Traverse City, is one of the leading producers of tart cherries in the nation. off ridgenes and fields, The same geographic characteristics that,make forrgood fruit have also made its hillside farms attractive places for wireless telecommunications. facilities.::: keeping agricultural land in active agricultural use." The town now allows telecommunications towers..in its :agricultural and conservation zone through a "special -use permit process, ". reports.Gordon Hayward, Peninsula Township planner. — Leslie Batley- Beach, However, zoning restrictions require that proposals to erect new telecommunications towers must demonstrate that the.equipment cannot be' located on existing facilities. Moreover Director of Stewardship regulations prohibit towers on scenic views: for Vermont Land Trust Communities around the cop .. ry.are grappling with requests for cell phone towers and communi- ty objections to them, most*often' because of aesthetic concerns, although environmental and health concerns sometimes come*into play. "It's affecting everybody. To(get a seamless national network you need to be everywhere," says Meg Maguire, president of Scenic America, a national organization that helps communities develop regulations that minimize the aesthetic impact of telecommunications equipment while allowing the industry to expand. "Local governments need to do all they can to mitigate the visual impacts of cell towers, and there's really quite a lot they can do," she continues. "Federal law requires that every community must host these things. But with that comes pretty broad powers to regulate." Albemarle County in Virginia, Silver City in New Mexico and the Adirondack Park Agency in New York are among a growing number of communities that have enacted local policies and /or ordinances to limit the visual impact of towers. Some strategies they rely on include co- location of towers on'existing structures such as pre- existing towers, buildings, water towers, street lights or utility poles, and "stealth technologies" that disguise wireless facilities as landscape features such as trees or flagpoles, or place them inside structures such as silos or church steeples. On working lands, suggests Maguire, it's important that farmers and ranchers "call the shots" about where telecommunications facilities are going to be placed and whether they're going to be screened. "There's a lot landowners can do to mitigate the impact on the land they love and care for." When requests come for telecommunications facilities on easement - protected farmland, program administrators face the added challenge of balancing their program's goals with community concerns and farmer interest in the rental income. . "For those focused on conserving open space and views, in addition to farmland preservation, aesthetic issues are more important. For us it's less of an issue," says Rich Harlow, manager of Michigan's farmland protection program, through which 4.3 million acres of farmland are protect- ed through 50,000 restrictive covenants. "Our statute permits cell towers but leaves regulation of aesthetic impacts to local governments. There are some economic benefits associated with the towers and, in most cases, a very limited impact on the farming operation. For us part of farmland preservation is preserving the farming operation. If it helps the operation to be more economically viable and is of limited impact on the farmland, then we see it as a positive." Continued on page 4 W� a iv °u L sa