Committee reviews bill to bar most municipal regulation of growing food, flags cannabis and small‑farm issues

A legislative committee reviewed draft legislation that would generally bar municipalities from regulating farming and the cultivation of food while preserving municipal authority over construction of farm structures in Tier 1A (downtown) areas. Committee members and Office of Legislative Council staff said the draft is intended to restore the pre‑Taft Street status quo and clarify when municipal bylaws may and may not apply.

Bridal Chauvin, Office of Legislative Council, summarized the bill and called attention to three core pieces: restoring the pre‑Taft Street tax‑rate status quo, exempting most farming activity from municipal bylaw regulation, and explicitly allowing municipalities to regulate the construction of farm structures in Tier 1A areas. "This bill is kind of different than the other proposals," Chauvin said, and she warned the committee that the phrase "right to grow food" could be read as a separate legal right that creates ambiguity with zoning language.

Chauvin walked the committee through definitions in the draft. The bill links its scope to the State's required agricultural practices (RAPs) and defines backyard growing as "cultivation or other use of land for growing plants for food, including maple sap…