HomeMy WebLinkAboutCAO Comment - Julian & Laetitia DelfinoTo: Jefferson County Department of Community Development
Re: Jefferson County Critical Areas Ordinance update 18.22.800
As aspiring farmers who have just moved onto zoned prime agricultural land in Chimacum, we are
very concerned about both the proposed changes and the existing language in the Agriculture
Exemption, Section 3a.
The addition of “Existing and on-going” to “agricultural activities” should be eliminated.This wording
is significantly more restrictive and has potential to further reduce the already limited farmable land
in Jefferson County. The wording is also vague, undefined, and open to interpretation.
This wording could be interpreted as “use it or lose it” and also appears to prohibit new farms from
farming these areas, even if another farm has been using it for decades. That aspect is particularly
concerning to us, since it potentially locks us out from producing food on our land before we've even
started.
We need more farms to feed our local community, not fewer. Jefferson County, for all its open
space, lacks productive land and farms. Therefore, we should be finding ways to support all farms,
including new farms--not looking for ways to edge them off of productive land.
“Adverse impacts” is also vague and subject to interpretation. Who will be judging what makes an
impact adverse, and what criteria will they use?
Our goals and methods, as we make our farming plan, are regenerative without exceptiona. We
know that farming, habitat, and care of critical areas are not mutually exclusive. All of the farmers
we've talked to in Jefferson County so far feel the same way, and our county is notable in how many
of its farmers value and implement regenerative and organic practices on their farms.
Conventional agriculture does not paint a fair or accurate picture: Farming and habitat are fully
compatible and mutually beneficial.
There are "critical areas" on our, but we aim to promote and create wildlife habitat with ecological
farming practices, including agroforestry, food forest areas, mulching over tillage, poper
animal rotation, and wild areas among crops. Crops and animals benefit from proximity to these
areas.
A constant refrain in Jefferson County is supporting and promoting local food and obtaining local
food security. We hear it from our politicians, too. But local food security means local farmers being
allowed to farm their land.
This ordinance, as written in the draft, threatens the local farms that feed us.
We request that you remove the proposed additional language of “Existing and ongoing" as well as
the sentence, “provided, the agricultural activity does not result in adverse impacts to a critical area
or its associated buffer.”
Let’s help secure the future of farms and local food in Jefferson County.
Sincerely,
Julian and Laetitia Delfino
1091 W Valley
Chimacum