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COMPOSITE REPORT - Page 2 APPLICATION NO. STAFF COMMENTS REGIONAL PLANNING Petition 6329. This proposed commercial expansion and theme park is in an agricultural preservation district of the Town of Westport. There is a"Christmas Barn" on the site zoned A-B agribusiness, along with a landscape business. Most of the remaining acreage is used for raising nursery stock. Surrounding land uses include: a limestone quarry to the east;farmland to the south, west and north; single family residences on the small parcels to the north and northwest;to the northeast is a farm owned by the County, which is also used as a police firing range and a compost site. As noted above, this is an agricultural preservation area and the relevant town/county policy for such a commercial proposal is: Agricultural businesses and home occupations compatible with agriculture may be permitted to rezone in the Agricultural Preservation district if the following criteria are met: a. A rural location is required to serve farmers; b. Close proximity to a rural resource is required; c. Discourage use of prime agricultural land as defined by the USDA Soil Productivity Classification map in Chapter II titled Background Report. d. The site is suitable for an on-site wastewater treatment absorption system. e. If commercial rezoning is requested, such use will include appropriate conditions to prevent other unacceptable commercial uses of the site in the future. Comments related to the policies: a. This is a rural location which was zoned A-B for the landscape business, consistent with the policy. However, the expanded use proposed is not related to agriculture or farmers. b. The retail and theme park proposals which require commercial rezoning are not related to a resource. In fact the other resource in the area besides agricultural land is the limestone in the quarry to the east. The Westport plan does recognize the quarry and has designated it as rural non-farm on the plan map. c. The Soil Productivity map indicates that most of the site south of the existing building is Prime Agricultural Land as defined by the USDA. The zoning application indicates that 80%of the site has soils in Classes I and II,the most productive, and 20%is Class III. Using such land for growing nursery stock is consistent with the current zoning; however, rezoning it to C-2 heavy commercial does not appear consistent.