Private Property Rights and Agriculture are Under Attack
By Carrie Peters
Private property rights are fundamental to our freedoms, and an attack on those rights is an inherent attack on agriculture. It is impossible to separate the two.
As much as we all hate to see houses on lands once ripe with barley or full of grazing cows, I firmly believe people should have the right to sell their land whenever they want, to whomever they want, in whatever size and shape they want and for the highest price they can get.
Being land rich and cash poor, ag producers have the most to lose through heavy-handed county land use regulations.
Park County land use planning process
Here in Park County, private property rights and agriculture are under attack. Our county is in the middle of a new land use planning process, and anyone truly paying attention is already aware of the subliminal anti-ag and private property agenda.
For those just tuning in for the regulation development phase, a newly released public survey reveals what was previously disguised. The narrative during the first phase was that ag was so important, farmers and ranchers should have their development rights largely taken away to stop subdivision.
“Saving ag lands” was the buzz phrase. Many of us recognized this for what it was – a power grab on property rights to preserve open space for people who just built their house five minutes ago and don’t want things to change starting now.
What better than to force us lowly farmers and ranchers to provide and maintain the viewsheds of everyone else? I mean this is why we exist, right?
Last fall, Park County Planning Director Joy Hill and County Commissioner Dossie Overfield discussed the county’s agenda on the radio and admitted the larger conversation really was all about preserving open space, not protecting agriculture.
Fast forward to the present, and question number five on the new survey asks how much various production ag activities should be regulated going forward in the new rules.
If Park County valued ag and had no intent to try and regulate it, they would never include this question.
County Commissioner Lloyd Thiel, a fellow ag producer, spoke up at a recent public meeting to share his disgust at the survey. With no support from the other commissioners, he was able to get a change made so at least there was a “no regulations” option on the questionnaire, otherwise, any choice a respondent made would automatically suggest they wanted more regulations.
Our county wants the open space ag provides, but now it has to be “just the right kind” of ag – “Not too hot or too cold,” as Goldilocks would say. Do you see the moving target here?
Wyoming Right to Farm Act
The Wyoming Right to Farm Act largely provides protection from bad actors – the intent is to keep ag-haters from shutting down things they find offensive or annoying.
The act states under Section 11-44-103 ag operations are not a nuisance if they conform to generally accepted agricultural management practices and existed before a change in the land use adjacent to the farm or ranch land and the farm or ranch operation would not have been a nuisance before the change in land use or occupancy occurred.
Ag is not currently regulated by Park County. Feedlots over 300 head are listed in the regulations, but this is ultimately coming from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.
Building permits for large structures are required, but so are building permits for everything else.
Park County is posturing to not only regulate new ag – there really isn’t any new ag popping up in areas where it hasn’t been historically – but also to exploit a potential loophole in the Wyoming Right to Farm Act based on changes within an existing operation.
On the surface, it seems current ag is “grandfathered in,” but consider this hypothetical – a young couple just bought a place and are trying to get their operation going. They only raise crops right now.
Meanwhile, a subdivision goes in next door. The couple finally gets to where they can start the cow herd they’ve always dreamed of.
Now their neighbors can complain about the change in the operation that didn’t exist before as the cows weren’t there when they moved in, and the county can deny the cows to preserve “harmony” in the neighborhood or because the new regs may not allow it in this area.
Additionally, because the new definition of a feedlot in Park County is an “enclosed facility where animals are confined for the purpose of feeding and growing prior to slaughter,” the couple may have to get county review and a permit for their kids to raise 4-H animals or they may be denied this request outright as well.
Park County is becoming a fiefdom ruled by overlords and “not in my backyard” hypocrites. A man who moved here from Colorado recently informed me, in the county he fled, a person couldn’t even cut down a tree on their property without permission.
This is exactly where we’re headed in Park County and throughout Wyoming if we don’t fight land use regulations at all levels.
I sometimes have fellow ag producers or friends and neighbors tell me we should “save ag lands” from development. As a person who loves and makes a living from the land, I get it. However, in my opinion, “saving ag lands” through regulation is a short-sighted argument missing the bigger picture.
As we’re seeing in Park County, government will always try to get more control, and we the people must constantly push back. If we safeguard our property rights first and foremost, I’m confident agriculture will be all the better for it.
Join me in letting the Park County commissioners and the planner director know what you think. Their e-mail addresses are as follows:
• scott.mangold@parkcounty-wy.gov
• kelly.simone@parkcounty-wy.gov
• dossie.overfield@parkcounty-wy.gov
• lloyd.thiel@parkcounty-wy.gov
• scott.steward@parkcounty-wy.gov
• planning@parkcounty-wy.gov.
Carrie Peters is a third generation Wyoming ag producer who graduated with an animal science degree from the University of Wyoming. She and her family farm and ranch between Powell and Cody.
