Issues at the Rural-Urban Fringe: Land Use -- Agricultural Districts

This fact sheet is one in a series intended to familiarize readers with land use issues at the rural-urban fringe. Several of the fact sheets specifically address techniques used in various states, including Florida, to encourage the long-term stability of land in agricultural production. Many states use more than one technique in an attempt to prevent land from converting from agricultural to non-agricultural use. Other techniques used to sustain agricultural land, explicitly addressed in forthcoming fact sheets, include Fee Simple Purchase and Purchase of Development Rights, Transfer of Development Rights, Clustering of Development, and Conservation Easements. Other fact sheets addressing rural-urban land use issues are available through the UF/IFAS Electronic Data Information System (EDIS) at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu. This is EDIS document FE555, a publication of the Department of Food and Resource Economics, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. This document is one of a series entitled "Issues at the Rural-Urban Fringe". Published October 2005.

Issues at the Rural-Urban Fringe: Methods to Sustain Agricultural Land -- Use-Value Assessment

This fact sheet is one in a series intended to familiarize readers with land use issues at the rural-urban fringe. The next several fact sheets specifically address techniques used in various states, including Florida, to encourage the long-term stability of land in agricultural production. Many states use more than one technique in an attempt to prevent land from converting from agricultural to non-agricultural use. Future fact sheets will explicitly address techniques of Agricultural Zoning, Agricultural Districts, Fee Simple Purchase and Purchase of Development Rights, Transfer of Development Rights, Clustering of Development, and Conservation Easements. This is EDIS document FE553, a publication of the Department of Food and Resource Economics, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. This document is one of a series entitled "Issues at the Rural Urban Fringe". Published July 2005.

Issues at the Rural-Urban Fringe: Land Use -- Agricultural Zoning

This fact sheet is one in a series intended to familiarize readers with land use issues at the rural-urban fringe. The next several fact sheets specifically address techniques used in various states, including Florida, to encourage the long-term stability of land in agricultural production. Many states use more than one technique in an attempt to prevent land from converting from agricultural to non-agricultural use. Future fact sheets will explicitly address techniques of Agricultural Districts, Fee Simple Purchase and Purchase of Development Rights, Transfer of Development Rights, Clustering of Development, and Conservation Easements. This is EDIS document FE554, a publication of the Department of Food and Resource Economics, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. This document is one of a series entitled "Issues at the Rural-Urban Fringe". Published May 2005.

Study on the Montgomery County Farmland Preservation Program and its Enlightenment for China

Montgomery County has been home to a strong agricultural industry, and the Farmland Preservation Program has contributed a lot. The two parts of the Program-the Transfer of Development Rights Program and the Purchase of Development Rights Program have preserved a great amount of farmland for the county and keep the development and prosperity of the agriculture. Nowadays, the recession of agriculture and the decrease of farmland are serious in China, so it is urgent to find solutions to those problems. The experiences from the Montgomery County has a certain sense of enlightenment for China to deal with the situation, such as 1) convert the development views and response to urban sprawl, 2) using economic means to solve the problems of farmland preservation, 3) establishing the development rights to guarantee the benefits and interests of farmers, 4) developing more scientific and reasonable land evaluation methods for the compensation.

Protecting Rural Amenities Through Farmland Preservation Programs

We investigate what farmland preservation programs reveal about the importance of protecting different rural amenities. An extensive content analysis of the enabling legislation of various farmland protection programs suggests wide variation exists in the protection of amenities. An analysis of 27 individual Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) programs’ selection criteria suggests these programs favor preserving amenities that are jointly provided by cropland and livestock operations. These PDR selection criteria also reveal unique preferences regarding the spatial patterns of preserved agricultural lands. Variation in relative weights given to protecting most parcel characteristics in PDR programs is not easily explained by factors that characterize areas experiencing farmland losses.

Factors Influencing Support for Rural Land Use Control: A Case Study

Agricultural land is being converted into rural residences at an unprecedented rate in the Inter-mountain West. Survey data have been collected for Sublette County, Wyoming concerning preferences for private land use and land use controls. Selected land use controls include zoning, purchase of development rights and cluster development. Local in-migration appears to be driven by the pursuit of open space and environmental amenities. Logit models are estimated for public and private choice co-variates. Private concerns about land use are the chief determinants of land use control approval.

Preserving Agricultural Land with Farmland Assessment: New Jersey as a Case Study

A conceptual model links agricultural profits, capital gains, interest rates, and property taxes to the sale of agricultural land by profit-maximizing owners. The model motivates an empirical analysis of New Jersey data from 1949 to 1990. Results suggest that nonagricultural considerations may overpower the economic incentives provided by such policies as farmland assessment. Consequently, alternative policies (e.g., purchase of development rights and land use zoning) may be needed to sustain agriculture in rapidly urbanizing areas.