York County Board of Supervisors Meeting June 17York County May Zone Out Family Farmers & Homesteaders 7 p.m. Tuesday - June 17, 2014 York Hall
On Tuesday June 17, the York County Board of Supervisors will vote on the first steps to strip agriculture from York County. They will vote on creating the purely residential R33 zone to replace the Rural Residential (RR) zone for the express purpose of stripping citizens' ability to conduct agriculture. The Board of Supervisors will also vote to apply this new R33 zone to the York Point area where embattled oyster farming Anthony Bavuso operates his farm. The Board is poised to vote to approve it in spite of the Planning Commission's recommendation against it. The creation of the R33 zone and the York Point rezoning will be the first dominoes to fall. County staff have identified 80 other neighborhoods that they believe should also be rezoned to R33. Please share this alert with friends, family and neighbors in Virginia. |
 BACKGROUND The York County Board of Supervisors is seeking to undermine the gains achieved for Virginia's family farms by two bills recently signed into law by the governor: SB51 allowing on-farm activities without requiring special permits and HB1089 clarifying aquaculture as an agricultural activity. The county has been in disputes with oyster farmers Anthony Bavuso of Seaford Oysters and Greg Garrett of Forbidden Oysters; and, despite the legislative remedy clarifying the farmers' right to continue their aquaculture operations as a part of agriculture, the Board of Supervisors is seeking to make radical zoning changes that could negatively impact as many as 7,000 residents. Read the Open Letter written by Kimberly Hartke |
Membership benefits include the possibility of representation in court; the Fund typically pays for all court costs. The Fund is not an insurance company and cannot guarantee representation on all legal matters. Your membership fees and donations help to keep local food sources available and preserve family farms facing unjust enforcement actions.
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Please forward this alert to others who are concerned about protecting locally-sourced nutrient-dense foods and preserving sustainable small family farms and artisan food producers as well as defending the rights to sell and to access the foods of one's choice from the source of one's choice. |
