—Lancaster Farming,- Saturday, June. 16; 1973
12
Environmentalists Express Concern on Farmland
Stretch With Population
Urban areas, which already
contain 66 percent of the nation’s
population, are destined to ex
pand into still more farm acreage
despite recent challenges by
environmentalists to the pace of
development.
That is the forecast of a
citizens' task force in a report
that offers hope for reconciling
some of the deep and growing
differences between forces
stimulating growth and those of
unyielding conservation.
though the task force, headed
by Laurance S. Rockefeller, is
critical of “unrestrained,
piecemeal urbanization,” it
recognizes that “the needs of the
American population can be met
only through continuing
development ”
The 12-member group found all
indicators pointing to a further
spread of urban land area
Stimulated by affluence, the pace
of land consumption exceeds both
the increase in population growth
and the rate of household for
mations, even though within the
next 12 years more than 27,000
new households are anticipated
every week That is the
equivalent to the weekly creation
of a city the size of Green Bay,
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Set up last September by the
White House-mandated Citizens’
Advisory Committee on En
vironmental Quality, the task
force was sponsored by the
Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Its
report will be published next
month in book form as The Use of
Land: A Citizens’ Policy Guide to
Urban Growth by Thomas Y.
Crowell Company of New York.
Much of the rapid conversion of
rural land is caused by the
enormous demand of Americans
for second or recreational homes,
the research team found. It gave
these statistics:
“There are now about 2.9
million second or recreational
homes in America, up from 1.7
million in 1967. It has -been
estimated that 95,000 second or
resort homes were started in
1971, up from an estimated
average of 20,000 per year in the
19405, 40,000 per year in the 19505,
and 75,000 per year in the 19605.
The estimated annual demand
for second homes is expected to
reach 200,000 by 1980.”
But more significant in terms
of inroads into the supply of rural
land is a task force finding that
“rural lots are being created far
Growth, 2nd Home Boom
faster than second homes. For
the nation as a whole at least six
recreational lots were sold in 1971
for every second home started.”
The task force believes
“livable, ecologically sound
recreational communities”
should be encouraged, but it
urged states and local
jurisdictions to prevent lot sales
where such communities are
unlikely to be developed.
Recognizing that the nation’s
open space needs cannot be met
solely with publicly owned land,
the task force urges in
dentification of privately owned
land that should be preserved in a
natural state, including uniquely
productive or strategically
located farm lands.
It urges, however, that
measures that provide tax relief
to farms in urbanizing areas be
re-examined. The rationale for
such measures, in effect in half
the states, is that the predictable
rise in property taxes in urban
fringes tends to “drive the far
mer off the land.”
The task force believes that
such tax relief is justified only
when the land assessed in current
use is truly worthy of preser
vation, and is to be conserved
permanently in farm use. Tax
reductions in the absence of
permanent restrictions should be
regarded as halfway measures,
the group maintains.
The task force is hopeful about
changed public attitudes that
have resulted in the evolution of
strict environmental criteria in
many areas. It believes new
institutions and policies gover
ning land use are needed to meet
“new expectations of managed
growth ”
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The group views the carrot
and-stick provisions of pending
federal land-use legislation as the
best hope for encouraging states
to begin the needed institutional
reforms. The bills, one of which
cleared the Senate last year,
would authorize from $l7O-to $BOO
million over five years in grants
to states for help with land-use
planning and regulation. One of
them also would impose sanc
tions on non-complying states in
the form of cuts in airport, high
ways, and land and water con
servation funds.
On the other hand, the task
force concludes that specific
decisions about the use of land
should be left to the states and
individual communities.
The bulk of its report consists
of recommended strategies,
addressed selectively to citizen
groups and governments at all
levels, for shaping policies that
will insure rational development
and at the same time protect and
improve the environment
Besides Mr. Rockefeller, the
task force includes Paul N.
Ylvisaker, dean of the graduate
school of education, Harvard
University, who served as deputy
chairman; Mayor Pete Wilson of
San Diego, Henry L. Diamond,
commissioner of the New York
State Department of En
vironmental Conservation; John
F. Collins, former mayor of
Boston, now consulting professor
of urban affairs at the
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology; John R. Crowley,
chairman, Colorado Land Use
Commission; Walter E Hoadley,
executive vice president, Bank of
America National Trust and
Savings Association, A Wesley
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Hodge, a Seattle land-use
lawyer; Vernon E. Jordon,
executive director, National
Urban League; Mrs. Virginia
Nugent, chairman, National
Land Use Committee, League of
Women Voters; John R. Price,
Jr, vice president, Manufac
turers Hanover Trust Company;
and James W. Rouse, chairman
of the Rouse Company and
founder of the new town of
Columbia, Md.
William K. Reilly, a lawyer
planner on leave from the Council
on \ Environmental Quality,
serves as staff director.
Among the task force’s other
major recommendations:
1. Where protected .areas are
carefully selected as the result of
a comprehensive planning
process, states should authorize
and encourage very low density
zoning, “including requirements
for 50 or more acres per per
mitted dwelling unit.”
2. A National Lands Trust
should be established either
within the Interior Department
or by federal charter. It should
have federal funding of $2OO
million annually, to be made
available on a matching basis
with a 75-percent federal share to
assist public bodies in the
designation, planning, and
conservation of extensive green
spaces in and around major
urbanizing areas.
3. The federal government
should encourage open space
protection by formulating,
mapping, and publicizing a set of
advisory national open space
classifications for consultation by
federal, state, and local officials
and private land buyers and
sellers
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