[toddst]

This is controversial locally. Use of tax dollars for the PDR program is opjectionable to many (including me.) I'm interested in FReepers thoughts on this.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

Are they purchasing this land or are these conservation easments?

[little jeremiah]

There definitely is a problem with valuable farmland (which is essentially irreplaceable) being turned into housing developments, industrial parks and so on. A country can keep destroying food producing land only for so long without bad harm being done. In fact, erosion and other destruction of food producing arable land has been a factor in the demise of most civilizations.
People say, well, with agribusiness, chemicals, and Mexican produce we don't need farms. Bad argument, for many reasons. Personally, I won't touch Mexican produce if I can help it. Hepatitis, anyone? Or unregulated pesticide use.
Food produced locally is actually very important. Currently most food people eat is grown in FL, CA, AZ, OR. Suppose some kind of disruption occurs? Not only that, the quality of locally grown food is much better.

It is possible to have needed development and farms. One possibility is to lower property taxes - which IMO needs to be done anyway. If farmers have lower property taxes they wouldn't be so inclined to sell their farms to developers. And eliminating inheritance taxes. A lot of states have really high inheritance taxes, which is hateful.

(carry_okie - I thought you might be interested in this thread.)

[Issaquahking]

ping

[Cicero]

If it helps keep the farms as farms, I think it's a good thing. The problem is, that's a very hard thing to do. Probably the easement route, which prevents development and keeps the land in the hands of farmers, is the best solution found so far.

[skinkinthegrass]

This is controversial locally. Use of tax dollars for the PDR program is objectionable...

It's the 'NOT IN MY BACK YARD' mindset...They think, they are preserving the "Bluegrass", but for whom?, not for the Chill'ren. Anti-Development Luttites...They do it b/c, they can...nothing less, nothing more. They are typical brainless morons.

[singsong]

I don't get it. Why not just pass a regulation against building permits in the area? The land could still be sold but only limited construction allowed. There are industrial areas, there are residential areas, why not "farming areas"? Seems logical.

[dirtboy]

ping

[sergeantdave]

Sounds like a Conservation Easement (CE) to me. Bad deal all around.

CEs strip away an important part in your bundle of property rights - the right to do what you please with your property.

CEs also take land out of development, causing the prices of homes in urban areas to skyrocket.

CEs discriminate against low income earners, especially minorities, pricing them out of the housing market.

CEs will cause banks to treat your property like poison ivy - the owners in these restricted properties have great difficulty in getting loans for improvements because the property is restricted.

CE victims can be sued by third parties - Sierra Club, Wilderness Society and other property hating fanatics - if CE victims in any way violate terms of the CE.

Land subjected to CE control is very difficult to sell. Who wants to buy a 40 acre site if you can't build on or improve the land?

Finally, CEs are nothing more than state control of private property - fascism.

To subject private property to some condition, in perpetuity, is damn un-American.

[B Knotts]

Control immigration, and the pressure on farmland will subside.

[tacticalogic]

This is part of the "smart growth" agenda. Al Gore pretty much laid it out in his book. The idea is that the most efficient arrangement is to have the human population concentrated in large metropolitan areas with about the population density of Tokyo.

IOW - those red areas on the map are going to be slowly de-populated, and everyone re-located into the blue areas.

[countrydummy]

self ping, to read later, more crap, different day! Read the fine print! Read the fine print! Just more landgrabs!

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.

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