Organic Teaching Farm Gets Another Bum Steer, But Continues to Plow Ahead

Residents who want to create an organic teaching farm in Fairfield must have felt deja vu Thursday night when the town's Conservation Commission, for the second time, didn't allow them to speak or present their plans.

The first time, back in April, came after more than a dozen supporters of the organic teaching farm came to present and talk about plans to create the farm on Hoyden's Lane. But the commission didn't let them speak, and Stanton Lesser, the commission's chairman, moved on to the next item on the agenda after four minutes.

After that snub, Pamela Jones, a leader in the farm effort, said, "It's project exhaustion. It's just run them down and make it impossible."

It was "project exhaustion" again Thursday night, when about a dozen organic farm supporters came to Sullivan-Independence Hall ready to present their proposal to create the farm on the Hoyden's Hill Open Space, instead of Hoyden's Lane - a move backed by First Selectman Ken Flatto in an e-mail to Jones and which didn't raise concerns from Town Conservation Director Thomas Steinke.

Frank Rice, the commission's secretary, said neither Lesser nor Milan Bull, the commission's vice chairman, were able to attend Thursday night's meeting, and he thought they should be present to hear the plans.

"I've had a number of calls from commissioners saying they couldn't be here tonight, asking us to postpone to the next meeting," Rice said.

Kate Maxham, a commission member, said a 2004 report from ornithologist Buzz Devine, who identified bird species "of special concern" on the 58.5-acre, town-owned Hoyden's Hill Open Space, ought to be available to commission members ahead of time. "It looked like some of the species were very close to where the farm is proposed, so tabling it would be my preference as well," she said.

Rice, though, said he thought the Hoyden's Hill Open Space, which was farmed in the past, was a better site than the Hoyden's Lane property where town officials plan to build a girls' Little League field and likely add two additional athletic fields in the future.

Jones raised her hand to speak, but Rice moved forward with a vote to table the organic teaching farm to the commission's next meeting.

But leaders in the effort to create an organic teaching farm in Fairfield aren't bailing out.

After Thursday night's meeting, Jones said the Hoyden's Hill Open Space Management Plan says farming is an acceptable use of the property and that using the property to educate students in primary and secondary schools also is an acceptable use.

Jones said the species of special concern cited by Maxham were a brown thrasher, a blue-winged warbler and a wood thrush and that Tod Osier, who teaches a class in ornithology at Fairfield University, has told her that turning a grassy meadow into an organic garden would have little impact on the birds.

Devine's report on the birds first came up when the Parks and Recreation Department planned to build athletic fields on the Hoyden's Hill Open Space, a move opposed at the time by residents in the Hoyden's Hill Neighborhood Association.

The organic teaching farm plans to occupy a 300-foot by 180-foot fenced-in area that would include a 100-foot by 30-foot "hoop house," which is similar to a greenhouse, bermed and raised beds and a composting area. An existing barn would be used for group workshops, according to documents in the town's Conservation Department.

"The soil has been tested. It's prime farmland. It's been farmed for hundreds of years," Jones said in a second-floor hallway in Sullivan-Independence Hall. "We've done our due diligence. We wouldn't want to do anything to disturb the habitat."

Jones said the Fairfield Organic Teaching Farm wouldn't remove any trees, shrubs or understory beneath the trees where the species of special concern live.

Jennifer Cole, a member of the Fairfield Organic Teaching Farm, said hoop houses would be installed on the property to enable crops to be grown beyond the typical growing season. Jones said she had hoped to install the hoop houses and fencing before the first frost.

Jones said Annie Farrell, an expert in organic farming who manages the 75-acre Millstone Farm in Wilton, agreed to design the Fairfield organic teaching farm and that Mike Nadeau, from the Northeast Organic Farming Association, agreed to donate his services.

"Now, we're really just looking to get approval and raise money," Jones said, adding that the Fairfield Organic Teaching Farm was also looking for corporate sponsors.

Beth Bradley, also a member of the Fairfield Organic Teaching Farm, said she encouraged Fairfield to follow what other towns and cities in the state have done by creating an organic farm for the community. "We're anxious to get going," she said.

Jones confirmed Thursday night that the group was no longer interested in the 520 Hoyden's Lane property. The Hoyden's Lane site would have been leased to the Fairfield Organic Teaching Farm for three years, and Jones didn't like the idea of investing time and money in site preparation and soil improvements on a property the farm would have to leave after such a short amount of time, according to a memo from Steinke about two weeks ago.

Larry Kaley, a former member of the Representative Town Meeting and an advocate for the environment, said Fairfield was "progressive in the area of energy, and I think it would follow with organic farming."

"It has to do with the well-being of people and the environment. It's just another way of approaching the same thing," Kaley said.

But Kaley said nothing comes easy in Fairfield. "To move things forward is difficult. It's hard," he said.