Maine Revised Statutes, Title 7, § 51: Purpose, 1989

The Legislature finds that the public health, safety and welfare is threatened when land immediately adjacent to farmland is developed for human habitation. This development and the uses incident to it are inconsistent with various activities commonly engaged in on farmland, such as the application of agricultural chemicals. The Legislature declares that the purposes of this chapter are: [PL 1989, c. 478, §1 (NEW).] 1. Health impacts. To minimize any health or other adverse impacts which common agricultural activities may have on the occupants of land adjacent to farmland; [PL 1989, c. 478, §1 (NEW).] 2. Agricultural activities. To protect the ability of farmers to engage in common agricultural activities with minimal potential for causing harm to their neighbors; [PL 1989, c. 478, §1 (NEW).] 3. Full land use. To permit the owners of both farmland and adjacent land to maintain to the highest degree possible the full use and enjoyment of their land, but to recognize the importance of agriculture to the economic and social welfare of the State; [PL 1989, c. 478, §1 (NEW).] 4. Production capacity. To conserve agricultural production capacity for present needs and for the future; [PL 1989, c. 478, §1 (NEW).] 5. Harmony. To promote harmony between agriculture and adjacent nonfarm development; [PL 1989, c. 478, §1 (NEW).] 6. Responsibility. To recognize the mutual responsibility of agricultural operators and persons siting nonfarm development adjacent to farmland to take steps to accommodate each other's concerns and the public interest; [PL 1989, c. 478, §1 (NEW).] 7. Public records. For purposes of administering this regulatory program, to create in each municipality and each county registry of deeds a register of farmland which will provide a public record and enable disclosure to potential buyers of real estate and the public regarding the existence of active farming operations in the community that may be incompatible with residential development on lands in the immediate vicinity; and [PL 1989, c. 478, §1 (NEW).] 8. Distance. When farmland is registered for the application of agricultural chemicals, to provide some accommodation for that activity and for adjacent nonfarm developments by distancing them from each other and by providing a reasonable setback for new residential and other particularly sensitive types of development from actively used agricultural land. [PL 1989, c. 478, §1 (NEW).]