Slow sprawl

Is the open space and farmland in southern Blaine County worth $25 a year to you?

That’s what it costs each taxpayer of Bucks County, Pa. to buy up what’s left of their open space and farms.

In May 1997, voters there passed a $59 million bond to halt the outward spread of suburbia from nearby Philadelphia.

The money is split between open space and farmland preservation programs that compensate landowners up to $10,000 an acre if they are willing to restrict development on their property. The restriction becomes part of the deed to the property.

It’s an idea that was broached in Blaine County recently.

At a farmlands workshop in early June, County Commissioner Mary Ann Mix stuck her toe in the water when she proposed a bond to preserve area farmland and wild lands.

Mix will team up with Scott Boettger of the Wood River Land Trust to explore the possibility of passing an open-space preservation bond here.

"The entire community would have to buy in," she said at the meeting.

Should Blaine County ante up and pay to preserve the openness of its south-county vistas, it would not be alone.

The federal government purchased scenic easements in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area to preserve views and traditional agriculture one of the most beautiful parts of the state. Since 1972, the Forest Service spent $29.6 million buying easements on 18,655 acres.

States, counties and local governments across the U.S. have bond programs in place to halt suburbs.

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"We’re starting to realize, we’re in this boat together," Katharine Watson, director of public information for Bucks County.

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Besides Pennsylvania, King County, Wash., the city of Boulder, Colo. and whole states—Vermont, Connecticut and even the bastion of suburbia, New Jersey, have farm preservation programs in place, according to the American Farmland Trust.

The Washington, D.C. conservation group puts the loss of farmland in the U.S. at two acres a minute.

That’s a specter that has prompted Blaine County to impose a third subdivision moratorium on south-county farmlands, ponder rezones and other growth management tools.

Bucks County, Pa. used its wallet to stop farmland subdivisions.

Rich Harvey is the director of farmland preservation for Bucks County. He coordinates the purchase of preservation easements, using state matching funds to keep farms as they are.

The $59 million bond was passed by a two-to-one majority after a year of study by a 22-member task force of developers, farmers, citizens and government officials.

Harvey said passing the bond wasn’t too hard because people who’d moved to Bucks County for its rural look, saw it disappearing.

"They just know the character of the county is changing," Harvey said.

The character of Blaine County is changing, too, but the comparative scale is different. Part of it is just the difference between East and West.

Bucks County is home to 600,000 residents and 54 municipalities across 380,000 acres.

Blaine County holds close to 20,000 people and five cities on 1.7 million acres, 319,000 of which are private.

In a sense, Bucks County is the original suburb. One of the first two post-WWII prefabricated, pre-planned communities known as Levittown was built there in the 1952 to house U.S. Steel workers who were employed at a plant nearby.

"That was really the first phase of development pressure," Harvey said.

It’s only gotten worse.

In the past 30 years, the suburbs have radiated from Levittown and Philadelphia and leap-frogged to the outer reaches of Bucks County.

"It’s just one big suburb of Philadelphia," Harvey said.

Like elsewhere, sprawl has come at the cost of farmlands.

In 1945, there were 4,500 farms in Bucks County. According to the latest count, Harvey said 680 small farms of 10, 20 and 30 acres remain.

Unlike Blaine County where farmland zoning means one house per 20 acres. Bucks County’s least dense zoning is one house per two and a half acres.

"We don’t really have traditional agricultural zoning," Harvey. "That (A-20 zoning) would never be feasible here because developers would challenge that in court and win."

Along with greater densities, come higher land values. In the part of the county nearest Philadelphia, what’s left of farmland goes for $20,000 to $30,000 an acre, Harvey said. At the northern end of the county, a landowner can get $5,000 an acre from a developer.

For every dollar Bucks County puts toward preservation, the state matches it with three from bond and cigarette tax coffers. Thus, landowners who qualify under strict guidelines--they must have a viable farm product--are paid up to $10,000 an acre not to develop.

Bucks County’s three-member Board of County Commissioners is now reviewing $4 million allocated for 1998 farmland efforts. Right now 50 farms are lined up to take part in the program, if they qualify.

With good schools and nice views, Bucks County is a sought- after place to live, much like Blaine County. One official said the bulldozers are parked and waiting.

"We have enormous development pressure," said Katharine Watson, the director of public information for Bucks County. "Every developer wants to build a house here.

What made the difference is that people in Bucks County finally adopted a "circle the wagons" mentality, Watson said.

She said when they voted on the $25 annual surcharge, voters overcame the perception that a problem on one end of the county did not affect them on the other.

"We’re starting to realize, we’re in this boat together," Watson said.

If Blaine County ever gets in the same boat, whether or not the county is recognizable in 20 years, may depend on who picks up the rudder.

Only time and politics will tell if Mix’s proposal to raise money to preserve open space will give the county the strength it needs to navigate very choppy waters.