It came after more than a decade-long fight.
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It came after a small group of farmers — most of them Old Order Amish — took the extreme step of battling a local municipality in county and state courts and winning.
It came Tuesday night, when East Lampeter Township supervisors voted not to appeal a precedent-setting state court decision and to approve the farmers' request.
Twelve farmers in the township got their farms, totaling 788 acres, included in an agricultural security area.
One of the Amish farmers said this morning the decision will help protect the farms, and their owners' way of life, from encroaching development in the future.
"It's a great relief," said the farmer, declining to give his name because of his religious beliefs. "We've come close to having land condemned before...It's a big step in the right direction."
Preservationists rejoiced today over what they say is a significant victory in the effort to save Lancaster County farmland.
Now every township in the county has an agricultural security area. The other last holdout, Paradise Township, officially got an ag security area June 10.
The state created ag security areas in 1981 to discourage nuisance laws that restrict farming and to limit the government's ability to condemn farmland.
Security areas also allow farmers to apply for farmland preservation through the county preservation program.
Township supervisors contended that there is no need for an ag-security area because farmers already have enough protections through the Right to Farm Act and township laws.
Creating an ag-security area could also cause future planning problems, they asserted. So they rejected three separate requests by farmers for ag-security areas through the years.
Then farmers took East Lampeter Township to court, with the help of financing by the Conestoga Valley Coalition, a group of local residents who want to save farms.
The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court on May 27 agreed with an earlier Lancaster County Court decision favoring the farmers' request.
The township's decision to not appeal ends the battle.
Lois Duling of the CVC said today she was grateful for the efforts by many people through the years to "help save the treasure of Lancaster County."
"We benefit from the efforts of these farmers in every way — quality of life, fine neighbors, their lifestyle and their produce," she said.
The farms included in the ag-security area are scattered throughout the 20.3 square miles of the township and represent 16.5 percent of its land.
East Lampeter Township supervisors voted unanimously against appealling the state court decision Tuesday night.
"We just felt, looking at what may or may not happen, that there was little chance going forward (with an appeal) that we would succeed," Chairman David Buckwalter said this morning.
Township manager Ralph Hutchison said this morning that the township spent $11,373 in legal fees related to the ag-security petition.
That includes some fees related to the general petition application process, he said. It does not include legal fees associated with Tuesday night's meeting.
"We felt we had made the right decision to deny an ag-security area," Buckwalter said. "Is it worth spending money? Sure it is. We've been involved with cases before...It's the cost of conducting business at the township."
Only one supervisor, Mike Landis, supported the farmers from the beginning.
"I wanted to see the farmers in our township given the same opportunity to be able to apply to the program," he said today. "The program isn't perfect. At the same time, it is here to stay."
Kevin McClarigan, chairman of the Paradise Township supervisors, said his board did not take any action on the petition of 10 farmers to include 596.5 acres of farmland in ag security, so they were included automatically on June 10.
He said he does not like ag-security areas and thinks the state could better spend dollars to help farmers in other ways. This was not the right battle, he said.
"It's no use spending taxpayer dollars to fight this," he said today. "It is the law."
Preservationists were much more supportive.
"Over the long haul as communities face more and more development pressure, there would have been consequences to not having ag-security areas," Karen Martynick of the Lancaster Farmland Trust said today.
"This is a big step forward for a farmer's right to farm and for property rights in general," said Matt Knepper of the county's Agricultural Preserve Board.
The East Lampeter Township Amish farmer who spoke with a reporter today said he thinks a lot more township farmers will become interested in including their farms in ag security.
How their eventual petitions to the township fare remains to be seen, he said.
Staff writer Ryan Robinson can be reached at rrobinson@LNPnews.com or 481-6032.
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