Brookhaven, NY Right to Farm: Farm Nuisance Protection (2026)

Adopted in 2015 and amended in 2016 and again in 2021, the Farmland Bill of Rights opens with the Town Board's finding that preserving prime agricultural land is vital to Brookhaven's character, environment, and economy, and that farmland is less burdensome on Town services than land put to other active uses. From that finding, § 85-925A declares that ordinary farming impacts, dust, smoke, noise, vibration, and odor, are presumed necessary and essential to bona fide farming and outweigh any annoyance to neighbors, unless the activity is demonstrably adverse to public health, safety, and welfare.

Section 85-925C turns that policy into a list of 16 specific protected farm practices permitted at all times, including clearing, grading that keeps material on-site, plowing, aerial and ground spraying of legal agricultural chemicals, raising horses and livestock, processing and marketing produce, disposing of organic waste and composting it on the farm, capped at 3,000 cubic yards used off-site and never as a commercial mulching or compost-for-sale operation, employing farm laborers, and operating local farm produce markets. Section 85-925E requires the Zoning Board of Appeals, Planning Board, and other Town land-use bodies to give written notice to any development applicant whose project sits within 1,000 feet of an active five-acre-plus farm, is encumbered by an agricultural easement, or lies in a designated agricultural district, and that notice must carry through onto the final subdivision map, site plan, and certificate of occupancy so future neighbors are on record as aware of the farm next door.