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Agency of Agriculture urges statutory fix to restore municipal farming exemption after Supreme Court ruling
Summary
Agency of Agriculture officials told a legislative committee that language changes are needed to restore municipal zoning protections for farming after a recent Supreme Court decision, proposing a $5,000 activity threshold and special treatment for livestock while seeking consensus with towns and farm groups.
Agency of Agriculture officials told a legislative committee on Friday they are pushing a targeted statutory change to restore a municipal zoning exemption for farming after a recent Vermont Supreme Court ruling narrowed who qualifies for the exemption.
“We have lost nearly 73,000 acres since 2017,” said Abby Wheeler, director of the agency’s Ag Development Division, citing agency land‑use data as she described the urgency of protecting productive farmland. Wheeler said Vermont has about 1.2 million acres in agricultural use, roughly half of which is in active production, and that small producers and value‑added businesses increasingly rely on predictable land‑use rules.
The agency’s legal counsel, Steve Collier, said…
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