Farmland Preservation in Suffolk County, New York

The oldest program of its kind in the country

Suffolk County pioneered the Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) model in 1974 as a direct response to development pressure eating into Long Island's farmland -- functionally, the county pays a farm owner for the value of everything except the right to keep farming, permanently. The landowner keeps ownership, keeps farming, keeps the right to sell or pass down the land -- but gives up the right to ever develop it for anything other than agriculture. The county's own accounting credits the program with preserving roughly 11,000 acres directly through county purchases, with more than 20,000 acres preserved county-wide once town-level and nonprofit preservation efforts are included.

How the valuation and application process actually works

A landowner applies to the Suffolk County Farmland Committee, which evaluates the parcel's appropriateness for the program (soil quality, location, agricultural viability, and program priorities). If the Committee approves moving forward, county staff seek a legislative resolution -- generally within about five business days of the Committee meeting -- to authorize the appraisal process. The valuation itself uses a 'before and after' method: a certified appraiser values the property twice in one report, once as if all development rights are intact, and once as if those rights have been stripped away entirely (based on comparable sales of already-rights-stripped land). The difference between those two values is what the county pays -- by certified check -- if the landowner accepts the offer and the sale closes.

Applications are generally accepted during an annual open enrollment period (recent cycles have opened in March); contact the Division of Planning & Environment directly for the current year's window and application form rather than assuming a fixed annual date. Program funding is real but finite -- as one recent-year data point, the county spent $7.2 million preserving about 76 acres in a single year, with a following-year PDR fund balance in the range of $12.4 million -- meaning not every applicant in a given cycle is necessarily funded, and current-year funding levels should be confirmed directly rather than assumed from any prior year's figures.

What it means if you're buying land that's already preserved

A parcel whose development rights were already sold to the county under this program carries a permanent legal restriction, recorded against the property, limiting it to agricultural use regardless of who owns it in the future -- this runs with the land, not with the current owner, exactly like a conservation easement elsewhere. That restriction generally lowers the land's per-acre sale price relative to unrestricted farmland nearby (buyers have specifically noted paying far more per acre for Riverhead/Southold land where rights have already been sold than the statewide average farmland price, since 'restricted-but-still-expensive North Fork land' and 'unrestricted farmland at statewide average pricing' are not comparable products) -- but it also guarantees the land can never be developed out from under a farming buyer by a future owner, which is exactly the protection the program is designed to provide.

Before buying agricultural land anywhere in Suffolk County, especially on the North Fork, check the county's own Farmland PDR Parcels Viewer (a GIS layer maintained by Suffolk County) to see directly whether a specific parcel's development rights have already been sold, and get the actual recorded easement/deed restriction document -- not just a summary -- to understand precisely what agricultural uses remain permitted and what's restricted.

What to check before buying

1. Check the Suffolk County Farmland PDR Parcels Viewer (county GIS) to see whether a specific parcel's development rights have already been sold to the county.
2. If they have, obtain the actual recorded deed restriction/easement document to confirm exactly which agricultural uses remain permitted -- restrictions can vary by parcel and program vintage.
3. If you're the seller or a farmer considering applying, contact the Division of Planning & Environment directly for the current year's open-enrollment window, current program funding levels, and the Farmland Committee's current evaluation priorities before assuming a specific timeline or payout.
4. Compare pricing carefully: land with development rights already sold trades in a different (generally lower per-acre, agriculture-only) market than unrestricted farmland, and both are priced very differently from Suffolk's built-out suburban towns -- don't compare a North Fork PDR-restricted parcel's price to either extreme without adjusting for its actual legal restrictions.