By MICHAEL VIRTANEN
Associated Press

ALBANY - The lawyer for an Adirondack farmer told a state appeals court Wednesday that farmers can legally build any agricultural structures they want free of interference from the state agency responsible for protecting New York's northern mountains.

"That means pink barns within the middle of a field any size. That means neon silos 180 feet tall. That means manure piles," attorney John Privitera said. "That means every single structure or thing or use on a farm is exempt from regulation inside the Adirondack Park."

State Assistant Solicitor General Julie Sheridan urged the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court to reject that argument. Instead, she said, the five justices should overturn a trial judge's November ruling that three modular homes built by Salim "Sandy" Lewis on his 1,200-acre farm in Essex are exempt from Adirondack Park Agency permit requirements.

Sheridan said the plain language in state law shows that residential structures are under the APA's jurisdiction. The law defines agricultural structures as barns, silos, sheds, stables and similar structures, but not the three single-family homes built by Lewis for farmworkers, students and visiting farmers, she said.

"To the extent there are environmental concerns at play here, that is within the scope of the APA's expertise," Sheridan added. The agency's mandate includes protecting the environment and wilderness inside the 6-million-acre Adirondack Park. Carving out an exception for housing just because farmworkers live there "will give rise to a whole host of loopholes" and threaten APA enforcement, she said.

Privitera countered that farmworkers and their housing are necessary to farming and qualify as agricultural structures exempt for APA interference. Farming creates and preserves open space, he said.

"Here the entire farming community of the state asks this question of the court: Do the farmers have the same right to farm, the same protection against land-use regulations, inside the Adirondack Park?" Privitera said. They hold and cherish those same rights outside it, he said.

The Lewis Family Farm said it got town permits for the structures, but was fined by the APA, which said the farm failed to obtain its permits. Lewis sued, arguing the structures were exempt, and state Supreme Court Justice Hon. Richard Meyer agreed.

Lewis, accompanied by supporters who filled the courtroom gallery, said afterward that one of residential buildings is currently occupied by farmworkers.

The New York Farm Bureau filed a brief in support of Lewis. "The APA is trying to bully our farmers, and we won't stand for it," Farm Bureau President Dean Norton said.

APA spokesman Keith McKeever said the agency has issued a half-dozen permits for farms, and its regulations aren't that restrictive. "We want to encourage farms in the park," he said.

One concern is what happens with such housing should that landowner cease farming, McKeever said. The APA appealed the trial judge's decision.

An Appellate Division ruling is expected this summer.