DELMAR – On Nov. 29, the Town of Bethlehem kicked off its first meeting of the Historic Heath Farm Advisory Committee. Town Supervisor David VanLuven opened the meeting by advising the committee on its goal for the 30- acre Heath Farm property purchased by the town last year.
“You will help develop a vision and a strategy for the property and a path for how to achieve it,” he said before directing committee members to “focus on how the land can continue to grow food and not apartments and warehouses.”
The town board appointed the nine committee members this fall after conducting candidate interviews over the summer.
The meeting, led by Town Open Space Coordinator Lauren Axford, was attended by committee members Roberta “Bobbie” Lukasiewicz, Stuart Lyman, Zan McKenna, Dale Richter, Gabby Sant’Angelo, Tom Seymour, David Vigoda and Mark Warford. (Kristen Yourno, the ninth committee member, could not attend.).
Bethlehem Director of Planning Rob Leslie reminded the committee that it should “look at what we are going to do with the whole 300 acres and not just the barn.” He said the committee will work “to develop individual goals and objectives for each parcel area.”
Axford then explained that the committee process would involve three phases. Phase 1 is for information gathering. During Phase 2, the committee will identify needs and opportunities, including funding, partnerships and “the ways we can have the most impact,” said Axford. Phase 3 will involve “creating an overall mission” for the property and “recommending a vision for each focus area” as a guide to the board.
The remainder of the meeting was devoted to reviewing the report summarizing the comments received by the town through its interactive “story map” feedback survey that was posted online.
Axford said several themes – environment, agriculture and community development – were evident from the feedback. VanLuven described the story map feedback as “insight into what the community members are thinking” but the “committee is not bound by it.”
Axford noted the community interest in maintaining much of the land with agricultural easements so it is not developed and can be available for farming.
“We need folks in town to support farms, and we need to make that connection,” said Axford. “This project can help that and create educational opportunities.”
“To the extent you want the land in the hands of farmers, that’s easier said than done,” said committee member David Vigoda said, suggesting that the committee “think about how to identify potential farmers and investors and address that sooner rather than later.”
Dale Richter, another committee member added, “We need to figure out what kind of farming we are talking about and what kind of farming would work best for the size of the land we have.”
Before concluding, Axford assigned committee members with homework due on Dec. 15. She asked each committee member to provide his or her answer to the question, “The Historic Health Farm Initiative will … .” She asked committee members in their responses to think about the themes and about what they read in the feedback survey “to set up a vision for the full 300 acres, and then break it down for each focus area with its own vision.”
When committee member Stuart Lyman asked whether there was any idea that should not be included, VanLuven responded, “selling the land for development.”
Thirteen more meetings have been scheduled to occur between now and Dec. 11, 2024, plus site visits.
“We want to walk as many of the focus areas as we can,” said Leslie.
All committee meetings are open to the public and scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. Axford said the meetings were scheduled at that time out of convenience to the committee member’s jobs and family responsibilities.
Axford said she is hoping the board will be able to vote on a plan in November 2024. She said a December meeting is scheduled “because if we complete this all by then, we should celebrate.”
All materials will appear on the project’s website www.historicheathfarm.com, and Axford said community members should contact her with any questions or concerns.