The way some farmers choose to live on their property is in legal limbo.
The Howard County Council has refused to endorse an unwritten rule of the county Agricultural Land Preservation Program.
However, the ALPP, which pays farmowners to give up development rights, may still deny them the right to live on their land as tenants, said Joy Levy, ALPP administrator.
She said the unwritten rule requires farmowners to live on specified lots that are subdivided off the farm; only tenants may live on the farmland.
“Traditionally, tenant houses are lived in by a worker, not someone who is gong to build a McMansion,” she said, referring to one owner who tried to develop a 20,000-square-foot house on the farmland instead of the designated lots that can be sold to developers.
Those lots “are our future,” said Barb Sullivan, whose family wants to move to their 84-acre farm in Woodbine and start a cattle beef and horse farm.
“When something happens, like a husband losing a job, we could sell those lots. It?s a safety net for our family.”
The ALPP denied the Sullivans tenant housing in January, but with the council?s recent support, they plan to reapply.
However, the ALPP said it may still enforce its unwritten rule.
“If a new request came in tomorrow, I don?t know what we would do. I would lean toward interpreting our policy the way we always have,” Levy said.
