The Impacts of On-farm Diversification to the Family Farm and the Intersection of Land Preservation through Public Planning in Ontario

Have you ever wondered what prompts Ontario family farmers to diversify, what land use planning policies allow for alternative uses on farms and how Ontario can continue to preserve agricultural lands as family farming continues to change? This primary research objective is to understand how on-farmdiversification impacts the family farm and what the intersection of on-farm diversification and land preservation is through public planning policy in Ontario. The 2016 OMAFRA Guidelines on PermittedUses in Ontario’s Prime Agricultural Areas was/is the first tool that provides family farmingentrepreneurs and municipal government planners opportunities to create on-farm diversified uses whilebalancing agricultural land preservation. This research will: Endeavour to explore which rural municipalities are using this tool efficiently andeffectively; Discover if the Guidelines are assisting entrepreneurs and identifying bestpractices; Identify if it is only prime agricultural lands that warrant these Guidelines for landpreservation; Acknowledge if the Guidelines are preserving prime agricultural lands; and Propose changes to the Ontario planning policy framework regarding on-farm diversification andland preservation. Overall, it is simply not enough to preserve agriculture land in Ontario, we must also preserve the family farmer Keywords: on-farm diversification; land preservation; family farm; Ontario planning policy

Smart Growth at the Ballot Box: Understanding Voting on Affordable Housing and Land Management Referendums

This study investigates voter decision-making on two smart-growth components: land preservation and affordable housing. We seek to understand how voters make concurrent decisions about unpaired smart-growth components at the ballot box. Previous studies of smart growth, affordable housing, and environmental preservation have focused primarily on describing the attitudes and traits of voters on these policies, utilize aggregate voting outcomes, or are case studies of single towns in which there is a fairly homogenous group of residents either supporting or opposing the policy. We draw on a unique data set to investigate the different covariates of attitudes for environmental preservation and affordable housing: an exit poll of voters in the 2016 Rhode Island General Election on bond referendums for environmental preservation and affordable housing. We find that the coalition for smart growth that includes both land preservation and affordable housing is undermined by views of minorities and the poor as undeserving.

Zoning for Jobs- Industrial Land Preservation in the Nation's Largest Cities

Major US cities are faced with a dilemma- how to accommodate a growing population and support urban industrial users. One response that some cities are taking is explicitly protecting swatches of industrial land as they realize the strategic value of plentiful industrial land. This piece reviewed industrial land use policies of the fifty largest US cities in 2012 and provides descriptions for 12 city industrial land preservation policies.