
Misinformed, it’s what the people that oppose our farm are and no matter what we say they refuse to let go of their preconceived notions.
Also the town’s planning guidelines are completely unreasonable for someone like us or other small businesses to comply with. We have scrapped our plans for our farm but even to just keep the animals we have now we would need to go through the whole planning process. If you want to see for yourself how intensive the process is here is a link to the application. (Application for Site Plan Approval)
The reason we have to go through this is that according to zoning guidelines anyone that lives on a residentially zoned parcel can use it for agriculture activities, but only if they have a minimum of 7 acres and an approved site plan. That’s right if you want to have a few hens in a residential area of the Town of Plattsburgh you need 7 acres and a site plan (I don't think they really enforce this though). What makes this whole situation more absurd is the fact that the property on the back side of ours is agricultural! Part of our parcel (a small part mind you) is even IN the ag district!
And all of this leads to me being seriously Miffed!!!!! We now have to either find a place to keep our animals or sell them! I am not a happy person to be around right now. We have a piece of land we are trying to buy in Chautauqua County in western NY, but we first need to sell our house and that takes time, time I’m not sure the town is going to give us. We haven’t received any notifications to remove our animals yet, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of days until we do.
If you’re as miffed as me let the Town of Plattsburgh know, it can’t hurt and maybe, just maybe, it will help.
Town of Plattsburgh
151 Banker Road
Plattsburgh, NY 12901-7307
Phone: (518) 562-6800
Fax: (518) 563-8136
Philip E. Von Bargen
Planning Department Head
philv@townofplattsburgh.org
Allen Reece
Code Enforcement Officer
(518) 562-6842
allenr@townofplattsburgh.org