Suffolk County buys development rights to preserve Calverton farmland
Suffolk paid $2,500,980 to lock in farmland use on 34 Calverton acres, blocking subdivision on part of Fire Chicken Farm while keeping the land private.
Suffolk County spent $2,500,980 to buy the development rights for about 34 acres in Calverton, a move county officials say will keep part of the 37.36-acre Fire Chicken Farm property in agriculture and out of the subdivision pipeline.
The purchase does not transfer the land to the government. Fire Chicken Farms LLC keeps ownership, but the county now controls how the parcel can be used, limiting it to agricultural purposes and preventing future nonfarm development that could have turned the site into houses, commercial buildings or another higher-intensity use. The acreage is planted in cover crops now and is expected to transition to a commercial horse boarding operation, keeping the parcel active rather than idle.
For Suffolk taxpayers, the deal buys a permanent restriction on one of the East End’s increasingly scarce rural parcels. In Calverton and throughout the Town of Riverhead, each preserved tract reduces the amount of open land available for future development at a time when housing demand, land values and sprawl pressure continue to reshape the North Fork and adjoining communities. County officials say the point of the program is not only to protect farms, but also to preserve the working landscape that supports local agriculture and maintains the rural character of the East End.
Ed Romaine, the county executive, framed the closing as another step in Suffolk’s long-running farmland preservation effort. Suffolk says its Farmland Development Rights program began in 1974 and is the oldest purchase-of-development-rights program in the nation. County officials say the program has protected about 11,000 acres of farmland, with more than 20,000 acres preserved countywide through county, town and nonprofit efforts.
The county’s standards for buying development rights weigh soil quality, contiguity with other farmland, scenic vistas, property value and development pressure. Those criteria help explain why a relatively small parcel in Calverton could draw a multimillion-dollar public investment: once development rights are extinguished, the land stays in farming use even if ownership changes.
The Fire Chicken Farm deal had already been moving through county channels before the closing. Suffolk lawmakers introduced Procedural Resolution No. 1-2025 on Feb. 4, 2025, authorizing an appraisal for the property under the Suffolk County Drinking Water Protection Program. On April 17, 2025, the Suffolk County Agricultural and Farmland Protection Board recommended adding the Fire Chicken Farms LLC parcel to Agricultural District No. 1, which would expand that district by 37.4 acres in Riverhead.
Suffolk’s latest purchase shows how farmland preservation is being used as a land-use tool, not just a conservation slogan. In Calverton, the county has paid to keep one more parcel in farming and one less parcel available for the kind of development that has steadily narrowed the East End’s rural margin.
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