David Andreatta

@david_andreatta

Some Webster residents want their town to believe its motto, "Where Life Is Worth Living," is only true if they're not living near tomato greenhouses.

An out-of-town tomato-growing operation called Intergrow Greenhouses Inc. wants to set up shop on an expanse of farmland at Salt and State roads and bring 100 jobs with it.

But people packed the Webster Recreation Center the other night to warn the town planning board that if greenhouses go up, there goes the neighborhood.

Those things are as toxic to property values as strip clubs, homeless shelters and shooting ranges, didn't you know? One man actually said it would no longer snow in his children's backyard, proving that hot air isn't only a byproduct of hothouses.

As evidence that the farmland is no place to grow tomatoes in this fashion, the people point to a town "conservation easement agreement" that they claim protects the land as open space.

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Town Supervisor Ron Nesbitt, who seems open to the greenhouse operation, says the agreement does no such thing. But his credibility has been shot since he was caught stealing political lawn signs last year.

So who is to be believed? The torch-and-pitchfork crowd with its theories of an endless summer? Or a politician who deserves to be pelted with rotten tomatoes?

They're both right, as it turns out, but the edge goes to the lawn sign thief.

The conservation easement agreement in question was inked in 2005 and covers 394 acres owned by Dean and Mark Schreiber, whose families have farmed that land for decades.

Webster residents want tomato greenhouse plan squashed

The agreement spans 29 pages with exhibits, and is loaded with run-on sentences and legalese such as "grantee" and "grantor" and "hereto" and "hereby" that boil down to this:

The town paid the Schreibers $2.3 million in exchange for the peace of mind that they would never turn the land into single-family homes or a school or something else so god-awful that life in Webster would no longer be worth living.

(Before any Webster resident has a heart attack at that figure, it's worth noting that state and federal grants paid for the lion's share. The town put up $506,000.)

The agreement has two purposes — a "primary purpose" and a "secondary purpose." Together, they're referred to in the agreement as "the purposes," but the secondary is subordinate to the primary.

The "primary purpose" is "to enable the property to remain in agricultural or forestry uses for current and future production of food."

The "secondary purpose" is "to conserve and protect the property's open space resources, and their associated unique and special natural features to the extent that such protection does not conflict with the primary purpose of this easement."

Note the operative phrase: "… to the extent that such protection does not conflict with the primary purpose of this easement."

In other words, the land should ideally resemble a Bob Ross painting in perpetuity unless doing so gets in the way of producing food, like tomatoes.

That doesn't mean the Schreibers or any party who leases or buys some or all of the land from them can throw up silos or barns or greenhouses willy-nilly. For the most part, they need permission from the town.

The agreement restricts development without town permission to seven relatively small patches of land spread across the 394 acres called "Farmstead Reservation Areas," and up to 5 percent of the land outside of those areas.

All told, there are fewer than 60 acres that can be developed without the town's say-so. Intergrow wants to build on 114 acres, 74 of which would be occupied by three massive greenhouses.

So, Intergrow has a math problem that it needs the town's help to solve.

There's no question the conservation easement agreement gives town officials the authority to greenlight those greenhouses.

The only question for officials is whether doing so would get them run out of a town where life is worth living.

David Andreatta is a Democrat and Chronicle columnist. He can be reached at dandreatta@gannett.com.