By Amanda Estes 

Staff Writer

The Cape Elizabeth Farm Committee (CEFC) expects to submit a written report to the town council on April 14, outlining recommendations for keeping local farms viable and while the coming planting season will mean long days in the fields, the group’s work is far from done.

Town Councilor James Rowe said a council workshop on the CEFC’s report has been tentatively scheduled for April 18. 

With a new name, a Web site and community involvement, the group of farmers and farm supporters hope to educate the public about the importance of maintaining working farms, while also informing people of the products and services local farms provide. 

Either Cape Farm Alliance or Cape Elizabeth Farm Alliance – some members of the group said Cape alone would not be recognizable to tourists – could become the group’s new name. Most attendants at a Feb. 27 meeting said alliance was representative of the group’s purpose.

“It speaks to us all working together as a community and as farmers,” said Heidi Whitten, the new operations manager of Walnut Hill Stables.  

Since its November 14, 2007 kick-off meeting, CEFC has formed four focus groups, charged with inventorying the town’s agricultural assets, reviewing the town’s zoning ordinance and available property tax programs, identifying opportunities for youth involvement in agriculture, promoting public awareness and community involvement, informing agricultural landowners about conservation and preservation programs and recommending initiatives to sustain agriculture in Cape Elizabeth. 

Last week, the conservation and preservation subcommittee presented a preliminary report to the larger group, drafted by Cape Elizabeth Land Trust (CELT) Executive Director Chris Franklin, that outlines methods of preserving farms through comprehensive planning, growth management, conservation easements, the transfer of development rights and a right to farm ordinance. 

According to the report, a right to farm ordinance “generally protects a farmer from being ‘punished’ when following generally accepted farming practices.”

“Communities without these regulations often find that new development adjacent to farmland may present competing interpretations of whose rights are being violated (most often by noise, odor or dust),” the report states. 

Penny Jordan, who operates the William H. Jordan farm on Wells Road with her brother and two sisters, said farmers are showing an interest in making their products available to schools and speaking to classrooms. Jordan said there is also an interest in starting a Farm to School initiative in the fall.

Farm field trips, school gardens and students’ senior transition projects could also be other opportunities for the schools and farms to interact, Jordan said.  

“Farms can’t drive what goes on in school, but schools can ask, ‘Can you come speak to my class, can you help us plant x, y, z?” Jordan said. 

Sprague Corporation Property Manager and head of CEFC’s ordinance and taxation subcommittee John Greene said his group has just finished reviewing the town’s zoning ordinance and more specifically its treatment of setbacks and buffering, to see where there might be opportunities to make some changes. 

“We looked at making sure the definitions were very clear in relation to agriculture,” Greene said. “Then we looked at the issues allowed in each of the zoning districts to ensure agriculture and its accessory uses have a pretty broad availability in those districts.” 

Greene said the group plans to review the sign ordinance, subdivision regulations and the health and sanitation ordinance. 

The group is also reviewing federal and state property tax programs such as the tree growth tax law and the farmland and open space tax laws, Greene said. 

“Tree growth provides a valuation of the property that’s classified as forest land and it’s based on a product value rather than fair market value,” Greene said of the state program. 

The forested land must be used for commercial harvesting and applicants are required to submit a forestry plan, Greene said. 

Under the farmland program, valuations are based on the current use of the land, Greene said. 

“For example, crop land has a $400 per acre suggested value…and pastureland would have a suggested value of $325 per acre,” he said. 

Landowners could receive up to a 95 percent reduction in the fair market value of their parcel by applying for the state’s open space program. Landowners receive a 20 percent reduction for retaining open space, another 30 percent reduction for protecting the land, another 20 percent reduction for setting the land aside as a natural space for perpetuity, and an additional 25 percent reduction for allowing public access to the land, Greene said. 

Greene said the open space program is not always a “palatable” option to land owners because it takes away their ability to realize any value from the land in the future. 

For more information about the Cape Elizabeth Farm Committee, visit www.capeelizabethfarms.com.