By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

                Farm fields and forests seem to stretch out forever in Levy County. The green landscape is a welcome sign to many, a calming presence to others, but could agricultural fields and forests be trampled by toll roads or high-density residential development?

            Those were issues discussed at a meeting of the Levy County Commission Tuesday when commissioners and audience members discussed whether the county should create a Farmland Preservation Area in Levy County to protect one of the county’s oldest and largest industries – agriculture.

            The meeting ended with the board instructing county Planning and Zoning Director Stacey Hectus to move forward with research on developing the framework for a Farmland Preservation Area – if that’s what it would be called – and to set up a meeting with producers of cattle, row crops, etc. to find out what they think about developing a Farmland Preservation Area.

            Farmers present at the meeting encouraged the board to schedule a night meeting between the watermelon and the peanut seasons to give producers the best chance of offering their input. Watermelon picking season has just begun and many of the farmers attending Tuesday’s meeting came straight from the fields.

             Hectus said County Commissioner John Meeks had been urging her to set up a meeting on farmland protection for six to eight months. A meeting was proposed for February or March but some commissioners were involved in election canvassing boards and the meeting was postponed.

            Among the farmers attending the board meeting was Chiefland area farmer Tommy Harper, a retired mechanical engineer who raises cattle and crops on the family’s farm. He is chairman of the Levy County Planning Commission and knowledgeable about the Levy County Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Code.

            Hectus said the Farmland Preservation Area would require the adoption of a large comprehensive plan amendment and it’s doubtful she could get it done this year with all the other things she has on her plate.

            Harper encouraged Hectus and commissioners to take a common-sense approach to figure out how they want to protect farmland.

            “When you approach a problem like this you kind of have to define what you’re really talking about so when we’re talking about preserving agriculture land, we need to be very specific about what land,” Harper said.

            He said the county needs to be careful about how it approaches the subject to avoid generating all sorts of opposition.

            “So, the ‘why’ is going to be extremely important, and we’re going to say ‘what’ we’re going to do and ‘how’ we’re going to do this,” he said.

            He said the state did a good job of defining production agriculture in 2012.

            “In some cases, a cattle farmer might have 1,000 acres. Forestry is part of agriculture in the state definition, so when we’re talking about agriculture, we’re not just talking grain and cattle and livestock, we’re talking about forestry,” Harper said. “It’s really talking about folks who are making a living, making a contribution by being in the agriculture business. They may be running a 10-acre nursery, so a 10-acre parcel may be very critical to agriculture preservation.”

            “They may be raising cattle on 10,000 acres or they may be raising corn and peanuts and it may be on 8,000 acres. We need to look at the ‘what’ in a lot of detail. We ought to go through this with the property appraiser and define what pieces are in production because land uses are what we are really talking about. I’m suggesting on a preliminary basis that’s what you need to do.”

            Jason Whistler, a 22-year employee of the property appraiser’s office and a candidate for the property appraiser’s position, said Interim Property Appraiser Randy Rutter has developed a color-coded digital map showing what parcels of land in the county are designated as agriculture. He was responding to a question from the board.

            Meeks said he brought the discussion of farmland protection to the county commission in light of all the discussions taking place at the state level concerning I-75 expansion, the former M-CORES told road program, the Northern Turnpike Extension other issues related to revising the toll roads.

            He said Marion County has designated a Farmland Preservation Area as part of its comprehensive plan. He said he talked to commissioners in Marion County. He said they designated this Farmland Preservation Area as a way to direct where the I-75 expansion or turnpike extension should go if it heads for Marion County.

            “This is why I wanted to bring it to the board if this is something we want to do,” Meeks said.

            He said there are quite a few producers from the agriculture field that are interested in the concept because they have such a large investment in Levy County property.

            “They don’t want to see it divided or changed – a bunch of growth comes in and people pop up around them and all of a sudden, the land that they run cows on for 100 years; they don’t want them to run cows anymore because of flies and other things,” Meeks said.

            Meeks quoted from a letter written by Charles Lee of Audubon Florida to Commissioner Lilly Rooks in which Lee said he was encouraged to see that the Levy County Commission was considering the adoption of a Farmland Preservation Area.

            “This is a very effective tool to help block a possible turnpike under consideration by FDOT with regard to their Northern Turnpike Extension study. As you know, two of the FDOT proposed routes would pass through Levy County, and disrupt very important agricultural lands and conservation lands,” he said.

            Lee said the Farmland Preservation Area should be supported by data and analysis that documents the important characteristics of the farmland in Levy County. He said it should also include conservation lands including Goethe State Forest.

            “Silviculture is also agriculture. The statistics and information to form and “data and analysis” should be gathered using such resources as the University of Florida, IFAS, and the Florida Farm Bureau,” Lee said.

            He made more suggestions.

            “It is important that the FPA adopted by Levy County be done as part of the Levy County Comprehensive Plan and that it appears as a designated area on the county’s Future Land Use Map. It is also important that the language of what they adopt describing the purposes of the FPA clearly indicates that among the disallowed land uses within the designated FPA areas are “toll roads and Turnpike projects pursuant to FS 338, Florida Statutes. This would have a very specific legal effect that would make it very difficult for FDOT to ignore Levy County’s position,” Lee said.

            He highlighted sections of Florida Statute that say state road projects like the turnpike extension must be consistent to the maximum extent feasible with approved local government comprehensive plans in which the projects would be located.

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Board of County Commission Workshop May 18, 2022; Posted May 19, 2022