Protecting Farmland At The Fringe: Do Regulations Work? Strengthening The Research Agenda
Conference Proceedings
September 5-7, 2001 Baltimore, Maryland
Edited by Lawrence W. Libby & Charles Abdalla
This publication is available on the web at http://aede.osu.edu/programs/Swank Protecting Farmland At The Fringe: Do Regulations Work? Strengthening The Research Agenda
September 5-7, 2001 Baltimore, Maryland
Sponsors Organizing Committee The American Planning Association Lawrence W. Libby, Co-Chair The Maryland Center for Agricultural and Natural Resource Policy The Ohio State University
The Farm Foundation Charles Abdalla, Co-Chair The Pennsylvania State University The National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education Marilyn Altobello The Maryland Center for Agro-Ecology, Inc. University of Connecticut
The Maryland Department of Agriculture/Maryland Agricultural Nelson Bills Land Preservation Foundation Cornell University
The Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development Lori M. Lynch University of Maryland Maryland Department of Natural Resources Joshua M. Duke USDA - Natural Resources Conservation Service University of Delaware
The North Central Regional Center for Rural Development Andrew F. Seidl Colorado State University The Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development L. Steven Smutko The Southern Rural Development Center North Carolina State University
The Western Rural Development Center Alvin D. Sokolow University of California, Davis U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Research Initiative Gary D. Taylor The C. William Swank Program in Rural-Urban Policy, The Ohio Michigan State University State University
Published by the Swank Program in Rural-Urban Policy Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio
Protecting Farmland at the Fringe: Do Regulations Work? Strengthening the Research Agenda 1 Contents
Introduction ...... 3 Lawrence W. Libby, The Ohio State University
Why Save Land, Farms, and Agriculture?...... 5 Paul W. Barkley, Washington State University
Achieving Sensible Agricultural Zoning to Protect PDR Investment ...... 11 Deborah Bowers, Bowers Publishing
Agricultural Zoning: Impacts And Future Directions ...... 17 Mark W. Cordes, Northern Illinois University School of Law
Smart Growth and Farmland – National Policy Trends ...... 35 Ralph Grossi, American Farmland Trust
Assessing the Impact of Right to Farm Laws on an Evolving Agricultural Industry: A Checks and Balances System Approach ...... 39 John C. Becker, The Pennsylvania State University
Linking Growth Management and Farmland Preservation: Proposals from the American Planning Association’s Growing SmartSM Project...... 49 Stuart Meck, American Planning Association
Farmland Protection Programs: How Would We Know They Worked? ...... 59 Ralph E. Heimlich, USDA - Economic Research Service
The Political Viability of Agricultural Protection Zoning to Prevent Premature Conversion of Farmland ...... 79 J. Dixon Esseks and Lela M. Long, Northern Illinois University
Regulating for Farmland Protection: What About Private Property Rights? ...... 89 Peggy Kirk Hall, The Ohio State University
Protecting Farmland at the Fringe: Do Regulations Work? Strengthening the Research Agenda 1 A Comprehensive Approach to Rural Preservation: Maryland’s Smart Growth Initiative ...... 95 Harriet Tregoning, Governor’s Office, State of Maryland
Effective Agriculture Preservation Zoning—One Tool to Help Save an Industry ...... 101 Clyde A. B. Myers, Penn State Cooperative Extension, Berks County Cheryl Auchenbach, Berks County Planning Commission
Strengthening the Research Agenda – Future Priorities...... 109 Charles Abdalla, The Pennsylvania State University
Attendees List ...... 113
2 Protecting Farmland at the Fringe: Do Regulations Work? Strengthening the Research Agenda Protecting Farmland at the Fringe: Do Regulations Work? Strengthening the Research Agenda 3 Introduction Lawrence W. Libby The Ohio State University
There are farmland retention programs under- “Right to Farm” is the next policy examined. John way in all states and many localities across the U.S. Becker, Professor of Agricultural Economics and Law Approaches vary from farmland tax incentives, to vol- at Penn State, considers the various checks and bal- untary agricultural districts, to strict growth controls, ances inherent in any state right to farm ordinance. He to exclusive agricultural zoning. All states have “right reviews the legal challenges and legislative adjustments. to farm” laws that protect farmers using generally accepted farm practices from most nuisance suits by the Stuart Meck deals with the links between farmland neighbors. The policy mix in any place reflects both the protection and growth management. He reviews devel- perceived urgency of “the farmland problem” and what opment of model ordinances by the American Planning changes in land market rules are politically acceptable. Association. What works in Florida may not pass muster in Illinois. Ralph Heimlich raises the key “so what” questions This conference focuses on one category of policy in his analysis of farmland protection efforts nation- tools – regulations. Speakers are policy researchers and wide. He examines the evidence on how such policy agency leaders. Conference participants are national, affects land values and land use patterns. state and local land use policy people, leaders of groups supporting farmland protection and growth manage- The political and property rights issues surround- ment, planners, analysts, and educators. ing agricultural zoning are discussed in separate papers by Dick Esseks and Lela Long, Northern Illinois Uni- We highlight regulations at this conference because versity, and Peggy Hall, a specialist in agricultural and those are the tools most available to communities across rural law at Ohio State. Esseks and Long review the the country trying to guide development and protect evidence on whether people generally support zoning open space. Rural land use zoning has been around as a way to keep land in farms. Hall considers how the for over 70 years. Comprehensive growth controls are boundaries between public and private rights adjust more recent. This emphasis on regulation follows more with the policy environment and general perceptions of comprehensive examination of farmland policy at a fairness. 1998 conference “The Performance of State Programs for Farmland Protection” held in Columbus, Ohio. Pro- Then two cases are presented. Each considers how ceedings of that conference are available. things have gone with regulation in a particular setting.
The conference begins with an overview of farm- • Harriet Tregoning, Maryland’s Secretary for Smart land protection by Paul Barkley. He asks why we are Growth, discusses the various elements of that worrying about farmland at all, and considers how this state’s path-breaking program. has become a policy topic. • Clyde Myers and Cheryl Auchenbach detail the experience in Berks County, Pennsylvania. A model Deborah Bowers and Mark Cordes analyze agri- zoning framework has been followed by eight town- cultural zoning in separate papers. Bowers considers ships and is making a difference in that county. how regulations complement purchase of development rights in the Maryland experience. Cordes documents An important goal for this conference, supported in the legal integrity of agricultural zoning from recent part by a National Research Initiative conference grant Supreme Court cases. from USDA, is presentation of a research agenda. The final session, facilitated by Charles Abdalla, Penn State Ralph Grossi, President of the American Farm- University, draws ideas from all participants in propos- land Trust, presents the case for a strong federal role ing an agenda for social science research. in farmland retention t