PLATTSBRUGH (New York) PRESS-REPUBLICAN

June 20, 2008

Argument presented in farm-housing case

By KIM SMITH DEDAM
Staff Writer

ELIZABETHTOWN -- The legal dispute over jurisdiction of farm-worker housing reached State Supreme Court on Thursday.

Attorneys for the Lewis Family Farm Inc. in Essex presented formal arguments claiming the Adirondack Park Agency has no regulatory power over agricultural structures, including farm-worker housing.

The New York Attorney General's Office, defending the APA, looked to dismiss the case, saying Judge Kevin Ryan already rendered a decision by sending it back for APA review.

And the New York State Farm Bureau filed arguments to support Lewis Family Farm, calling APA "bushwhackers" for ignoring "well-marked trails in the law."

LAWS COINCIDE

An interchange, at times colorful, bounced off Acting Supreme Court Judge Richard Meyer's bench, bringing forward the central conflict in the case: whether farm-worker houses are agricultural-use structures.

In her closing argument, Assistant Attorney General Loretta Simon said agricultural use is "about crops not people."

Albany attorney John J. Privitera, representing the Lewis Farm, said the APA Act was written at the same time as the right-to-farm laws to give farmers "elbow room" for development.

All structures on a farm count together as one principle building, according to APA rules, Privitera said, so "don't notice them -- they have nothing to do with density. We don't care how dense it (farm development) gets."

SINGLE-FAMILY DWELLINGS

 

In March, the APA fined the Lewis Family Farm Inc. $50,000 for building three farm-worker houses without APA permits.

APA commissioners said Lewis Family Farm Inc. had violated the APA and Scenic Rivers acts by building three single-family dwellings on Resource Management lands.
But the farm, owned by Sandy and Barbara Lewis, maintained the housing structures are agricultural use.

"Where does the (APA) Act say you can regulate them as single-family dwellings?" Privitera asked.

Simon argued the houses are single-family dwellings because of their location on Resource Management land.

She said agricultural-use structures include single-family dwellings.

But Meyer turned the question around.

"Are all single-family dwellings agricultural-use structures?"

"No," Simon said. "Agricultural-use structures involve crops not people."

Privitera summed up the farmers' position, saying APA agrees that one principle building counts for all buildings on a farm and has raised no density issue with Lewis farm.

"How are buildings that don't count jurisdictional?" he asked.

Simon suggested Meyer review Resource Management statutes as a whole.

"These single-family dwellings were intended to be regulated," she said.

BULLYING
Farm Bureau attorney Cynthia Feathers said the APA's actions in this case have not been about balance.

"They've been about bullying a good farm."

Simon said APA regulation is not about bullying.

"APA has done what has been mandated by law."

But at the end, Meyer questioned the Attorney General's lawsuit against Mr. and Mrs. Lewis personally, since the APA did not cite the farmers individually in their decision of March 25.

Simon said the Lewises exhibited a "flagrant" disregard for APA regulation.

"You don't think this is somewhat unfair?" Meyer asked.

"It depends on individual actions," Simon said. "APA has a mandate to protect the park."

Meyer will rule after consideration of arguments. Article 78 decisions generally come within 60 days.