D2-LancMtef Fanning, Saturday, April 5, 1997 Suburban Sprawl Could Mean Bad Tidings COLUMBUS, Ohio Subur ban sprawl can have substantial impact on the land surrounding a city. And in states like Ohio, with 16 urban centers, urban expansion can quickly take its toll on masses of prime farmland. In the past 40 years, 11 counties surrounding Youngstown, Cincin nati, Cleveland, Columbus and Akron have lost more than half of the farmland because of urban in fluences. “What happens in the suburbs and inner cities affect what hap pens to farmland just as much as what happens in rural areas,” said Tim Lawrence, Ohio State Uni versity Extension Community De velopment agent for the Darby Watershed project. Farmland preservation and de velopment aren’t mutually exclu sive, Lawrence said. He is one of the organizers of the upcoming conference, Growth & the Future, A Land Use Conference for All of Ohio. Cities are becoming vacant as farmland is converted to housing developments. Even with only a moderate rise in populations, peo ple have greatly expanded the SPRAYING EQUIPMENT SI AG-CHEM EQUIPMENT CO. AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL DEALER ag*chem EQUIPMENT CO. INC. Contact One of Dealers for More Information MESSICK FARM EQUIPMENT Elizabethtown, PA - Abbotstown, PA 717-367-1319 717-259-6617 TRI-COUNTY FARM & HOME Bloomsburg, Pa 717-437-3440 actual area they use to live, Law rence said. People need to find win/win solutions that allow for development without losing the best agricultural soils. A look at Ohio land use trends sheds light on the extent of the situation. Allen Prindle, an asso ciate professor of economics at Otterbein University in Wester ville, compiled trends data for the Ohio Farmland Preservation Task Force, which was organized by Governor George Voinovich. Here are some of Prindle’s find ings: • Ohio’s- population equaled 11.2 million in 1995. That will in crease 5.4 percent by 2015. • For every 1 percent increase in population, urban land use in creased 4.7 percent from 1960 to 1990. • During 1982-1992, land used for farming decreased 120,000 acres a year, or 7.5 percent. • The highest population growth in counties surrounding metro areas, while population is on a decline or slow growth in the center cities. “This kind of rapid growth cre ates problems,” Prindle said. DEALER INQUI “Low density suburban develop ments have their own problems. People have to build new infra structures and schools and provide community needs and services. Meanwhile, you can’t neglect the rural and urban areas that are be ing abandoned, either.” Plus, for every one acre of prime farmland that converts to suburban or residential use, that acre is not being used for food production, Prindle said. The community loses income from that, even though people tend to believe that the new commercial venture is replacing nothing. Farmland is not being valued. “From a global perspective, there’s a limited amount of land on Earth,” Prindle said. “From a state’s perspective, there is a per ception that there’s land in lowa, so it doesn’t matter if there’s a loss of Ohio farmland.” More than SO percent of Ohio’s land is prime farmland. Many of those acres are also in areas subject to the uiban impact. One reason for the expansion is that townships have control of land use decisions, said Jeff Wine gard, general counsel for the STULL EQUIPMENT Fottstown, PA 610-495-7441 N. O. BONSALL SON Millerstown, PA 717-589-3114 lES WELCOME For Farmland, American Farmland Trust Although this arrangement pro vides a lot of local control on how land is developed, it can be detri mental for protecting farmland, Winegard said. If adjoining town ships’ development plans are at odds with one another, it doesn’t make for rational land use deci sions. Winegard has been involved with land use planning in Michi gan, including a task force organ ized by the state. Several of the recommendations that resulted from the Michigan task force could apply to Ohio, he said, in cluding increasing farm profit ability, developing urban areas, improving zoning laws and pur chasing development rights. Both Prindle and Winegard will be discussing farm land trends and preservation at the land use con ference, which takes place March 2S-26 in Columbus. Other topics i B** LIQUID MANURE SPREADER Inner City on the agenda include: Housing and Transportation, Farmland Pre servation, Grcenways, Urban Sprawl. Agricultural Zoning, Pro tecting Rural Character, Ohio Planning and Zoning Enabling Legislation, Urban Communities and Watershed Planning, The meeting will be held at the Columbus Athenaeum, a histori cal building that was slotted for demolition in 1995 but was saved by an investor concerned about ur ban preservation. Registration, which includes meals and handout materials, is $75. Student registration is $3O. To register, said a check payable to Ohio State University Exten sion to OSU Extension, Com munity Development, Suite 235, 700 Ackerman Road, Columbus, Ohio 43202. For more informa tion, contact Lawrence at (937) 644-3162 or Michele Morrone at the Ohio Environmental Protec tion Agency at (614) 644-2873.
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