Farm Land in Livingston County, New York: Agricultural Districts and Farmland Protection

Three named districts covering more than half the county

Livingston County's Agricultural Districts Program divides the county into three numbered districts, each mapped to specific towns. District #1 covers property in the Towns of Caledonia, Leicester, and York; District #2 covers Avon, Conesus, Geneseo, Groveland, Lima, and Livonia; District #3 covers Mount Morris, North Dansville, Nunda, Ossian, Portage, Sparta, West Sparta, and Springwater. Together the three districts include more than 225,000 acres -- roughly 52% of the county's total land area -- making Livingston one of the more thoroughly agricultural-district-enrolled counties in New York.

Because certified Agricultural District status is administered on a town-by-town, parcel-by-parcel basis, the practical first step for any prospective farmland buyer is confirming exactly which district (if any) a specific parcel falls in, and cross-checking that against the county's own parcel listings and district maps rather than assuming district boundaries track the whole town evenly. Agricultural District status matters concretely: it triggers protections under the state's Agricultural Districts Law (Article 25-AA) against unreasonably restrictive local regulation of normal farm practices, and it's the trigger for the state-law-mandated Agricultural Data Statement that must accompany certain nearby development applications.

The county's own farmland protection (purchase of development rights) program

Beyond district designation, Livingston County runs an active Farmland Protection Program funded primarily through New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets Farmland Protection Implementation Grants (FPIG), which can pay eligible farmland owners for up to 87.5% of the value of their land's non-agricultural development rights -- a purchase-of-development-rights (PDR) arrangement that permanently extinguishes future development potential in exchange for compensation, while the land stays in private ownership and active farming. This is a genuinely active, currently funded county program, not a dormant policy on paper: the county opened a farmland protection application window in early 2026, with a pre-application deadline of July 17, 2026 for that round.

A specific procedural requirement worth knowing before applying: all landowners from an interested farm operation, or lessors of farmland involved in an application, must attend a workshop before the application is eligible for state FPIG funding -- this isn't a simple mail-in application. If you're buying farmland specifically with an eye toward eventually enrolling it in this PDR program (or buying land that's already partially through the process), confirm current program status, deadlines, and workshop scheduling directly with the county's Agriculture and Farmland Protection Board, since grant cycles and deadlines change year to year.

The county's underlying planning document for all of this, its Agriculture and Farmland Protection Plan, dates to 2006 and is currently being updated: the Agriculture and Farmland Protection Board secured a NYS Ag and Markets grant, paired with county funding, specifically to fund that update, with the stated goal of producing a fact-based framework the board can use to guide future decisions and programs. A buyer evaluating a longer-hold agricultural investment in Livingston County should expect this updated plan, once finalized, to potentially reshape future program priorities and district boundaries.

What to check before buying farmland here

• Confirm which of the three Agricultural Districts (if any) covers the specific parcel using the county's own Agricultural District Maps and parcel listings, not just the town it sits in.
• If a nearby non-farm development application would trigger an Agricultural Data Statement, expect that as a normal part of the county's land-use process near active agriculture -- it's a New York State Law requirement, not unique to Livingston County, but it applies broadly here given how much of the county is enrolled.
• If you're interested in the county's farmland protection (PDR) program, contact the Livingston County Agriculture and Farmland Protection Board directly (585-243-7550) for the current application cycle, deadline, and mandatory workshop schedule -- cycles and deadlines are not static year to year.
• Ask whether the parcel is affected by the county's in-progress update to its 2006 Agriculture and Farmland Protection Plan, since that update could shift future program priorities relevant to a longer-term agricultural investment.