《Policy Guide on Agricultural Land Preservation 2人》.pdfVIP

Policy Guide on Agricultural Land Preservation Adopted by the Chapter Delegate Assembly April 25, 1999 Ratified by the APA Board of Directors April 26, 1999 Summary of Key Points • Critical agricultural land is being developed at a rate higher than population growth; • The nature of agricultural production is changing and appropriate growth management techniques must recognize, and be proactive to these changes; • Most traditional zoning tools have minimal efficacy to protect against the development of agricultural lands; • Communities must develop, implement and enforce multiple mechanisms for the effective preservation of productive agricultural land (i.e. urban growth boundaries, purchase of development rights, exclusive agricultural zoning); • Agricultural productivity must be allowed to be a viable economic activity; • Farming is a business that also has environmental, public and aesthetic implications; • Agricultural land should be protected and preserved in large contiguous blocks in order to maintain a critical mass of farms and agricultural land; • Agricultural land preservation must be distinguished from open space preservation and must be viewed as protecting commercially viable farms and productive agricultural land which incidentally provides open space amenities; • Right-To-Farm provisions/protections must be included in agricultural land preservation programs, plans and policies; • Environmental stewardship must be integral with effective agricultural land preservation programs, plans and policies (i.e. erosion management, ground water protection, buffering, etc.); • Taxation strategies should be developed to discourage the conversion of agricultural land to other uses; • The extension of urban services into agricultural areas should be discourag