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Land access advocate tells committee regional planning must protect farmland in future‑use maps
Summary
A member of the Land Access and Opportunity Board urged the House agriculture committee to require regional planning commissions to include future agricultural land‑use maps in their current plan revisions, arguing maps should protect prime soils near towns to keep farms viable and accessible to markets.
Samantha Landriven, a resident of Bristol and representative on the Land Access and Opportunity Board, told the House Committee on Agriculture, Food Resiliency, & Forestry that regional planning commissions (RPCs) should be mandated to include future agricultural land‑use maps in their current revisions.
Landriven said future land‑use maps will shape where towns plan for growth and that agricultural land has been treated as “always outside of town” in recent RPC presentations. She urged a coherent, statewide approach so RPCs do not “muddle through it themselves.”
She cited the New England Feeding New England plan, saying modest gains in regional food security will require doubling the amount of land in agricultural production. Landriven urged planners to prioritize farmland that lies close to housing, municipal services, transportation and markets, citing Burlington’s Intervale as an example of productive farmland that benefits from proximity to markets and services.
Landriven described local examples in the Bristol–Middlebury area, noting flat river valley soils near the New Haven River and Otter Creek that are productive and at risk of development. She warned that once land is developed it is difficult to return it to farming because prime soils take thousands of years to form.
Committee members asked for local examples and discussed balancing housing needs with farmland protection. Landriven said she supports more housing but wants farmland access explicitly considered in RPC planning to keep farms on the land for future generations.
The committee did not take legislative action during the hearing; Landriven said she was available to answer questions and help the committee identify specific areas to protect when RPCs draft maps.
