Despite local conservation efforts, farmers and agriculture experts are concerned development related to Micron’s megaproject in Onondaga County will further diminish quality farmland in the region.
Tony Emmi, owner of Emmi Farms in Baldwinsville, said while he hasn’t seen any pressure to sell their land yet to support expected growth for the Clay project, he believes they will.
“I think once Micron starts, it’s my guess we’re going to see pressure out here for more development, for homes and places for people to live,” Emmi said.
Micron spent $1.4 million on a 30-acre plot in Clay earlier this summer with plans to build a childcare center.
The Onondaga County Comprehensive plan, released earlier this year, says the county will support affordable, attractive, diverse and efficient housing and neighborhoods in order to retain and attract residents. County Executive Ryan McMahon said it is possible to build 10,000 housing units in the coming years.
Micron is set to wrap up their environmental review process by the end of 2024 and will bring an anticipated 50,000 jobs to the area.
As housing needs rise, concerns over changes to the labor threshold, food prices and costs may lead farmers to transition out of agriculture and sell land to developers, lease land to other farmers or to solar power companies.
Emmi farms about 300 acres of fruits and vegetables, and the farm has been in his family since the 1940s. With financial pressure on farms impacting their bottom line, Emmi said he has made the choice to diversify.
“I do have concerns about farmland, but on one hand, we are building a solar field on some good land just to diversify the farm,” he said.
Because of rising costs and changes in state labor regulations, Emmi said the farm made the choice to generate guaranteed income by installing a 30-acre solar field. Emmi will receive approximately $1,000 per acre that he says is much more than he would make farming the land.
“The number one challenge is the cost of labor and just labor itself, being able to either get local help or navigating the federal H-2A program,” Emmi said. “We try to cover our costs, but it’s very difficult because a lot of the items we grow are very perishable, so we have to take what we can get for a price.”
County’s preservation of farmland
Since the 1950s, Onondaga County has lost 150,000 acres of farmland to development while the population increased by 37%.
In the past 25 years, the county has worked to bring back some of the acres lost to development through the Farmland Protection Incentive Program, said David Skeval, executive director of Cornell Cooperative Extension in Onondaga County.
“Basically New York purchases the development rights for farmland to protect it and keep it as farmland in exchange for capital to the farmers,” Skeval said.
The land is then put into a conservation easement that keeps it in agriculture production or as green space. Skeval said that most of the land in easements is held by land trusts.
Skeval still has concerns about farmland being sold to developers with Micron and the tens of thousands of jobs leaders say it will spur, but he says the county government has advocated for its protection.
“There’s going to be pressure to convert farmland to residential development so that’s why we have the Farmland Protection Board and the planning board because it looks at those issues,” Skeval said.
To date, Onondaga County has 12,000 acres of dedicated farmland in conversation easements, said Justin Sayles, a spokesperson for the county. The latest USDA Census of Agriculture says there are 623 farms in the county with more than 160,000 acres in production.
Additionally, Sayles said developers would need permission from the county for new developments to be included in the wastewater system, and County Executive Ryan McMahon, a Republican, has said there is no need, nor would he support doing that on farmland.
“They are very serious about protecting farmland. I think we have outpaced a lot of other counties in the state with its protection,” Skeval said.
Where to build
Even with land protections, developers see value in agriculture land as the county’s population grows.
When it comes to purchasing and developing land, William Camperlino of Eagan Real Estate in Syracuse said he looks for a few factors.
“I look for land that is in good school districts. I look for land that is serviced by sewer water and all utilities, gas and electricity. I also look for land that is easily accessible by highways,” Camperlino said.
Camperlino is a land developer, so he always buys raw land, either agricultural or timber, without any developments previously on the property.
“If it’s timber land, that’s a potential product to sell if it’s good timber,” he said. “Farmland that’s flat, you can put machines on it and re-contour it, so it drains well, it's easier that way but not everybody wants to live on flat land.”