March 24 webinar on farm zoning after 2025 Supreme Court ruling
A coalition of Vermont agricultural and land‑access organizations announced a free March 24 webinar to unpack a 2025 Supreme Court ruling that could affect farm zoning protections—timely briefing for rural and land‑access organizers. (x.com)
Organizers listed Vermont Farm Bureau, Agri‑Mark, Cabot, Vermont Dairy Producers Alliance, NOFA‑VT, the Vermont Association of Conservation Districts, the Connecticut River Watershed Farmers Alliance, Farm to Plate, and the Land Access and Opportunity Board as partners in the outreach. (ruralvermont.org) Rural Vermont’s event page shows the session time as 9:30–11:00 and requires RSVP to receive the webinar link. (ruralvermont.org) The same Rural Vermont listing contains contradictory date text—its header and local coverage list March 24 while the event copy twice references March 26—while North Star Monthly reports the session as running 9:30 a.m.–11:00 a.m. on March 24 and points to ruralvermont.org/municipal‑exemption‑2026 for preregistration. (ruralvermont.org) (northstarmonthly.com) The legal trigger for the coalition’s outreach is the Vermont Supreme Court decision In re: 8 Taft Street DRB & NOV Appeals, 2025 VT 27, issued May 30, 2025, in which the court read 24 V.S.A. §4413(d)(1)(A) as limited to policies addressing agricultural water pollution (the RAPs) rather than a blanket municipal zoning exemption. (northstarmonthly.com) (ruralvermont.org) Agency of Agriculture counsel Steve Collier presented draft statutory language to the Legislature on Jan. 16 aimed at restoring the pre‑ruling framework, establishing a statutory “Right to Grow Food,” permitting small backyard poultry (excluding roosters), expanding livestock exemptions in some 1–4‑acre situations after municipal consultation, and raising the RAPs sales threshold from $2,000 to $5,000. (legislature.vermont.gov) Coalition tactics documented in testimony and action alerts include circulating sign‑on letters, filing testimony with House and Senate Agriculture committees, and urging constituent letters to lawmakers (with Rural Vermont asking for messages before March 13 to influence the 2026 session timeline). (ruralvermont.org) (legislature.vermont.gov) Legislative testimony cited concrete farmer impacts: Seren Diaz of Giant Journey Farm described using Schedule F to access compliance expertise and programs on two acres, and Tucker Purchase told lawmakers his Fairmont Farms dairy operation spans 13 different town lines—examples the coalition uses to argue town‑by‑town regulation would complicate multi‑town operations. (northstarmonthly.com)
