More than a dozen farmers, most from the East End, spoke at a Tuesday public hearing in Hauppauge in support of a proposed Suffolk County law that would sidestep a New York State Supreme Court ruling that deems development on protected farmland illegal.
A feud between Suffolk County officials and a local environmentalist over farmland development rights is reaching a fever pitch. Essentially at stake is whether farmers have the right to build on properties where development rights have been sold.
Jeff Rottkamp, owner of Fox Hollow Farm in Baiting Hollow, had been preparing to join Suffolk County’s farmland preservation program. But those plans changed in September, when a New York State Supreme Court judge deemed development on protected farmland illegal.
A local environmental organization has brought a lawsuit challenging the implementation of the Suffolk County Farmland Preservation Program, a visionary concept that has been the key to saving an important and historical activity here and keeping Suffolk a top agricultural county in the state.