Part I: Fighting for the right to farm: Back Hills Farm wants ag district inclusion

Article and Photos by Karen Carr Keefe

Senior Contributing Writer

Part I of II

Dennis and Nicholas Bauman are fighting to keep their 25-acre Back Hills Farm in business at 951 Whitehaven Road, where they raise sheep, goats and chickens.

But they face a June 1 eviction by their landlord, Sinclair Communications LLC.

The eviction notice, issued last August, followed notifications of agricultural-related violations sent to Sinclair, but not to the Baumans, from the Town of Grand Island’s Code Enforcement Department.

It’s been three years since Dennis Bauman and his son, Nicholas, began their current farming venture.

“We put all this work and effort in getting the land to where we can actually use it for production, and now we’re being told we have to vacate. That’s a lot of work, money and effort to put into, to just be told ‘Get off,’ ” Dennis Bauman said.

The violations consisted of raising farm animals and keeping equipment on property that is zoned B-1 business.

Sinclair’s eviction petition lists as improper usage of the property “livestock herding, retail sales of eggs, permitting chickens to roam (free-range) on the leased premises, construction of non-permitted livestock pens … open storage of compost and manure without a properly approved site plan, all of which are expressly prohibited by the Town of Grand Island’s municipal code.”

Bauman says Back Hills Farm wouldn’t be in violation of any laws if the town had just gone along with the approval of ag district status for it by the Erie County Environment and Planning Department. That OK came on Nov. 1, 2023, after Bauman had submitted the application, through Sinclair, in September of that year, as required.

Bauman blames the farm’s failure to win “ag district” approval on what he considers communication failures by both Sinclair and the town, missed deadlines by Sinclair, and bureaucratic missteps by the town.

Supervisor Peter Marston says the town would be willing to try to work through code and zoning violations as long as the Baumans and their landlord are in it for the long haul.

The five-year term of the lease between Sinclair and Back Hills Farm was scheduled to run through April 30, 2027, as stated on the petition for eviction filed Aug. 29, 2024, by Sinclair.

Back Hills Farm has since been granted a stay until June 1 of this year to vacate the premises.

Sheep in a sheltering tent at Back Hills Farm on Whitehaven Road.

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Baumans face moving all animals, equipment

Through a memorandum of understanding between attorneys for the town and Sinclair, Bauman said they are obliged to move everything out of the building they occupy – the former Channel 29 studios – and move their equipment off the property.

“We’ve done everything in our power to comply with town law and to be in proper zoning, and the town has done everything to block it,” Dennis Bauman said.

“We used to have a great relationship with Sinclair, and now we only talk to attorneys.”

Bauman said they had been in negotiations and had reached an agreement to purchase land they now rent from Sinclair. He added that there was a competing bid from a developer that was rejected. The land was originally the site of Channel 29, WUTV. There’s a Sinclair broadcast tower on the property.

On Feb. 13, the Tribune-Sentinel-Dispatch spoke by phone with Bill Russell, director of real estate for Sinclair, who said he would look into the overall situation that resulted in the impending Bauman eviction. Russell did not get back to the newspaper before press time.

‘Landlord-tenant dispute’

Marston said what he called a “landlord-tenant dispute” is an obstacle to the town going forward to help the Baumans secure farming rights.

“At that point, it’s pretty much where it goes sideways because they are in disputes with their landlord,” Marston said. “It is not up to us. That is a private party thing. We don’t really control how the landlord feels about what they’re doing on their property. It’s their property.”

Violations bring county veto

On Nov. 13, 2023, the town initiated a code enforcement investigation that resulted in seven agriculture-related violations being issued against the property. The Baumans say that not only were they not notified of these violations, but they believed they would soon be accepted into the town’s agricultural district because of the Nov. 1 approval by the county Department of Environment and Planning. They expected that would be the gateway to final approval by the full Erie County Legislature.

Instead, Bauman said, the town went to the Erie County Legislature’s meeting on Dec. 23, 2023, and stated that Back Hills Farm was in zoning violation and had taken no actions to rectify the status. He said the town then asked the legislature to reject Back Hills Farm’s application to be in the agricultural district – and it did.

Town Agriculture Advisory Board Chair Sheila Daminski confirmed “the Erie County Legislature had voted for approval, and revoted and disapproved,” of Bauman’s inclusion in the ag district in 2023. Again, Bauman was not notified of the violations by the town or Sinclair Communications, he said.

The eviction notice leaves Dennis Bauman and his son with a mountain of problems and little time to overcome them.

“There’s a fight between us and Sinclair which I think was created by the town,” he said. “I think people were thinking we would just walk away. I don’t think they expected us to stand up and fight.

“If I don’t fight, we are out of business.”

Farm equipment outdoors at Back Hills Farm on Whitehaven Road. The farm land is leased to father and son Dennis and Nick Bauman by Sinclair Communications LLC. There are two broadcast towers on the property.

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Bauman has decades of farming experience

Bauman has been farming for more than 40 years. He has a degree in agronomy from Alfred State College and one in agricultural economics from the University of Georgia. He and his son studied permaculture in Belize, and Bauman assisted in grazing and crop management of both beef cattle herds and sheep flocks in Argentina.

In an unfortunate incident last November, Nick Bauman said four of their sheep were attacked and killed by coyotes at the solar field on Bedell Road where the sheep were grazing on vegetation at the site.

“We use sheep to manage the vegetation on solar fields,” Dennis Bauman said. “We do several on the Island, but we cover the entire state of New York. We have probably about 50 sites to bid on right now. We also do a lot of mowing, as well. We have a team of people that go out to the sites, and we take a travel trailer, and there’s some sites that we’re on for seven, 10, 12 days.”

He said it’s a niche business. They also sell a lot of the sheep for meat.

Family ties at Whitehaven farm

The land he currently leases has family ties for him.

“This property right here was my aunt’s farm,” Bauman said as he swept his hand over the horizon and pointed to the land where his sheep now graze. He remembers that his aunt, Viola Millner, and her husband, Abe, had a white farmhouse on the property.

“They owned all this land and they sold it in 1968 to what is now Sinclair – whatever the predecessor was – and they kept 5 acres for themselves,” he said. “They had a chicken coop and a woodshed. They had a dairy barn. They used to milk 10 to 12 cows.”

One of the Island’s biggest farms

Former Town Council member Mike Madigan said Back Hills Farm is one of the biggest farms on the Island, and its inclusion in the town’s ag district “definitely is warranted.”

He acknowledged the zoning mismatch, but said the town put the cart before the horse in issuing violations before allowing sufficient time to assess the working farm’s suitability for inclusion in an ag district.

“Now, is it in a B-1 district? That’s a concern – but that’s an easy one to resolve,” Madigan said. “If the town is truly ‘Right to Farm’ and pro-farm, there’s no better location than right where it is right now. They have very few, if any, neighbors, basically. So, I think it’s an ideal location. It seems like he’s got a pretty good operation there.”

“The story here, to me, is we have a law in place, we are committed that we are a Right to Farm town,” Madigan said. “They (the Town of Grand Island) didn’t follow standard procedure. I support farming and I just don’t understand why (the town) is trying to put him out of business.”

Nicholas Bauman said farms like theirs are a source of security for the community.

“Food is a national security, and it takes time,” he said. “It’s not something that happens overnight. Our family’s been on the Island for six generations. It’s something that we’re building to last, not just his lifetime or mine, but generations to come.

Dennis Bauman said, “We are reaching out to the community for a solution.”

Next week: Zoning vs. Right to Farm