. County government staff are harassing farms and agriculture all across Loudoun County, Virginia, with inexplicable policies. County bureaucracy invent "red tape" -- in contradiction to State law -- which is costing farms time, money, and the opportunity to make enough money to sustain the farm.
This is WHY development is running wild in Loudoun:
Because farmers can't make a living in Loudoun... So, they have to sell.
. We are struggling to keep this farm open as green space and as a recreational and open space facility for the community. We don't want to lose the family farm. We're not quitters!
. HERE's the core of the problem: Loudoun County staff write regulations and standards for 100% URBAN and commercial models and examples. They design facility standards, regulations, and rules to fit ONLY the MOST urban examples of shopping malls, office buildings, factories, computer data centers, etc.....
But THEN, they REFUSE to allow any variation from those URBAN-based regulations to account for the realities that exist on FARMS. A FARM is NOT a shopping mall or office building. These are DIFFERENT. Where State law creates exemptions for agriculture -- to provide for the realities that exist for farms and foresters -- Loudoun County obliterates all distinctions. Loudoun redundantly repeats State law as unnecessary local County Ordinances... but then deletes the agricultural sections. Richmond provided those agricultural sections to help farms stay as farms and green space -- and not need to sell for house-building. Yet, Loudoun deletes measures designed to help farms and foresters stay open, and avoid development.
The result is to regulate farms as if they were factories and office buildings (an approach which the State legislature rejects). It's as if County staff yearn to work in Manhattan, and have never seen a farm. (And the result is to transform Loudoun in the direction of big cities.)
.
So, if County government staff 'run farms out'
of the County, what else can we expect but over-building of
houses, and development gone wild? What
else would we expect?
.
The County already claims a financial strain in its budget, due to over-building faster than
the County can keep up with roads, utilities, public schools, etc.
Will bureaucrats lose jobs or bonuses, from a budget
crisis caused by their own harassment of farms
-- encouraging farms to sell to developers by the bushel?
. Housing Developers are offering Ticonderoga Farms multiple tens of millions of dollars to close the farm and pave it over with houses and roads. We are 1000 acres right near I-66, tempting for development, ideal for commuters, in the 3rd fastest-growing County in America. It's hard to resist millions of dollars. What farmer -- strapped for cash, scraping together money to cover expenses -- doesn't toy with daydreams of sipping iced tea on the beach, after selling out, giving in, and quitting ? And many do. That's why 'growth' is exploding in Loudoun. If Loudoun ignores the desparate financial condition of farms, why stay?
. WHAT DO YOU THINK? SHOULD WE SELL TO DEVELOPERS TO BUILD HOUSES, AND RECEIVE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS? Or continue to try to operate as a Christmas tree farm, adding composting income to survive?
.
Our farms can survive drought and weather -- but not over-regulation.
Loudoun County bureaucrats are driving Ticonderoga Farms out of business.
Without selling, finding the income to cover operating costs is extremely
difficult.
But if we close, the family will personally receive millions of
dollars in profits. So, what is
the point of this harassment? The family
will feel no pain ... But Loudoun County will lose 1000 acres of
green space, and the family will see their memories gone. It will
break our hearts. But it will also break the County's budget,
financially, when thousands of families move in, requiring the
construction of a new public school. So, who
benefits? Why are they doing this? We want to
STAY and grow Christmas trees!
.
All farms will be taxed higher.
On Nov. 4, 1999, the County's Tax Auditor (1 of 2) testified under oath
that all farms in Loudoun County will now be taxed on ANY activity
other than handing over produce. Hundreds of farms
supplement their dangerously-low farm income by performing services
for other farms, including Helen Marcum's farm (she is on the Board
of Supervisors). The Auditor testified that after consultation with
the County Attorney and everyone in a decision-making role, the
County has now decided to tax all of this activity on farms,
for all farms, without exception.
Unless we pull back from the brink and come to our senses, it's only
a matter of time before all farms in Loudoun get "caught" by the new
(very unwise) policy interpretation.
.
Also,
for years Ticonderoga Farms has supplemented its farm income by charging for disposal of
the wood -- which is a wise solution to the national crisis among
family farms, which are in great financial distress all across
America. We have found a solution.
.
Isn't that GREAT?
Shouldn't the County be applauding this wise re-cycling of debris
into valuable fertile topsoil to improve agriculture? Nearly every
government on Earth -- including the State statutes of Virginia --
encourages agricultural composting as the very best method for
dealing with excess wood debris (branches and stumps), leaves, and
grass.
.
But no. Now the staff is asking us to pay $6 million for the privilege of natural "composting" ($3 million to the County, $3 million to the State, because the bond is doubled).
. Loudoun's growing soil --
in this Southeastern corner-- is extraordinarily poor and heavy with
clay (which does not drain normally).
To grow Christmas trees economically, Ticonderoga Farms has had to import large quantities of topsoil. We must also compost wood, such as
branches and stumps (and previously leaves) that others do not want, and turn this into rich, fertile topsoil -- Nature's very best. This
allows high-quality agriculture without dangerous chemical fertilizers. This is Nature's method.
Every other option for disposing of this wood debris is FAR, FAR WORSE for the environment and the finances of the County.
1) This debris is burned, polluting the air. You're breathing it!
It causes disease for children and elderly. It adds greenhouse gases into the air, causing global warming.
2) Or it is stuffed in over-clogged, expensive landfills.
3) Farm use of fertilizer is the WORST problem for
Virginia's streams, rivers, lakes and the Bay, because it runs off from farms after the rain.
. The bureaucracy allows
this wood to be burned -- to pollute our air and contribute to Global
Warming, harming all Mankind -- for only a $100 permit. [DETAILS]
.
But the County bureaucracy calculates this $3 million bond -- that they want Ticonderoga Farms
to pony up -- on the following assumptions (and the State automatically doubles the County's number):
[DETAILS]
(1)So, what does the $3 million actually pay for? The County wants the valuable wood, which composts into valuable, fertile topsoil (which our farm needs) to be scraped up and removed in 6 months if we ever close. WHY? What's wrong with letting it compost to become rich, fertile soil? We want this topsoil. We need it. Why does the County want to steal it away and require us to pay $3 million for having it taken away from us?
Obviously, we don't object to removing anything other than clean, natural wood. But the $3 million bond is calculated as the cost of removing the wood which is perfectly safe. And this is wood that we need to create growing soil for agriculture. What is going on?
(2) The Couty says wood qualifies as "solid waste." Yes! They actually believe that wood is just as dangerous as human waste!
(3) The purpose of the bond is to substitute another company if anything goes wrong
with our company. The Board of Supervisors has granted us an exception of 5 years to process the wood (which is not really long
enough, but do-able) and 6 months of formal "closure." But from some
inexplicable twist, the staff assumes that this 5 1/2 years total
period will not apply if something goes wrong with our company, and
an alternate company is substituted. So, the staff assumes -- 5 1/2
years if we do it; 6 months if someone else does it. WHY?
.
So, Loudoun County wants our farm to post a $6 million penalty bond
($3 million to the County, and another $3 million to the State)
for the privilege of doing what almost every other government on Earth is trying to encourage!
.
This is simply not possible. No farm can afford to post
$6 million as a bond, when we are already financially border line. A multi-million
dollar bond is a "penalty." This leaves no choice but for us to pick
up the phone to the developers and say "WE GIVE
IN... We can't make it financially." It's very tempting to get
millions of dollars with a phone call.
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Ticonderoga Farms, Inc. 26175 Ticonderoga Rd. Chantilly, VA 20152 phone: (703) 327-4424 |
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