As far as I know there's not much of an issue with the farms and orchards in town. (On the other hand, it's a pretty rural town and doesn't have much in the way of new high-end residential developments.)
As far as I know there's not much of an issue with the farms and orchards in town. (On the other hand, it's a pretty rural town and doesn't have much in the way of new high-end residential developments.)
I used to live in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. As the name implies, before Wheat Ridge was a suburb of Denver, it was named after the abundance of farmers in the area. My dad and grandparents lived there when you could still see cattle or horses on in some places. The local high school's sports team is even named "the Farmers."
So there was something romantic about having the one of the last farms in Wheat Ridge right next to my neighborhood. The owner was too stubborn to sell until a couple of years ago, because the city had no means of forcing the sale of the land. Despite the nostalgia, everyone pretty much hated the farm because it dragged down land values and contributed little tax income to the city compared to the ~40 or so houses that are now replacing it.
In my view, agriculture seems to work against the interests of an expanding suburb or city, and shouldn't be encouraged if it has a negative impact on surrounding homeowners.
So... You support the idea that we will eventually get rid of all farms in favour of suburbia? How will this not end up negatively affecting the world around us?
I'd find it pretty horrible if the city did have the means to force the sale of the land so that developers could build more houses. Gentrification of any sort has plusses and minuses but I'm generally pretty opposed to the government imposing it by forcing people to move out and sell their property.
It astonishes me how obstinately self-centered people can be.
The farm was there long before the interlopers built their houses. It's not selfish or stubborn for a farmer to continue to farm, even if other people have recently decided that the land would be better used for McMansions.
It's one thing if we're discussing the expansion of farming into suburban areas but this is suburban sprawl into rural land.
First come, first served and all of that.
The family of the farmer that I described elsewhere in the thread had literally farmed their 500 acre land for nearly 400 years. Their original land grant from a Dutch Patroon called for annual taxes of 2 pigs and 5 bushels of wheat. They did nothing wrong. They have title to the land.
Why is that family's property rights inferior to those of folks building sprawl homes?
They aren't. They also aren't inherently superior and deserving of special privilege by virtue of being older. Otherwise we'd kick off the farmers, the natives who were there before, and every single form of life until the area degenerated to nothing but blue-green algae.
Also, the idea that a position is wrong because it offends or fails to respect someone else's beliefs in arbitrarily selected (but unspecified) ways is one that is offensive and disrespectful.
So there are restrictions on pretty much any use of property in a given town or state. The ability to build a house, run a farm, or build an asphalt plant is allowed or not allowed by the zoning. It's not about having a special "right to farm" any more or less than it's about having a special "right to build a house."
EDIT: Just add that the "right to farm" bylaws are mostly a reminder, especially to newcomers, that people have, um, a right to farm based on existing zoning. So don't move into our country town and then start a petition to close down the dairy farm down the street because it gets a bit smelly now and then during the summer.
That, I suppose, is a long way of saying that zoning can change. And sometimes other regulations change in ways that are inconvenient for some, especially when those people have failed to make a compelling case for why things should not change. We call this "democracy".
You have no legitimate right to demand that anyone do anything with their property based on your preference.
Which is to say you can demand all you like, but until enough people agree with you the right way it doesn't matter.
"Right to farm" rules are an example of democracy in action.
At its best, it keeps industrial sites from being built within certain residential areas. At its meanest, it's used to create economically and racially segregated communities, oust families from their homes, and freeze cities in time. Upholding its use for any of the latter could generally be assumed to be the result of particularly stubborn and selfish mindsets towards one's own convenience.
Also troubling about current US zoning practices are its weird exclusive use-per-zone rules, the threat to one's right to unencumbered use of their land, arbitrary development cost increases within cities (contributing to sprawl), and rent increases from zoning exploitation to artificially raise a community's median property values, and, as a side effect, driving up the rent in surrounding areas.
I consider these and any act which would potentially lead to the eviction of someone from their home to be much larger threats to the availability of equitable and affordable housing than people with the wealth to be mobile being bothered by not having the right to control what others do on and with their own property.
> Despite the nostalgia, everyone pretty much hated the farm because it dragged down land values and contributed little tax income to the city compared to the ~40 or so houses that are now replacing it.
Only 40 houses? Do you realize how much "everyone pretty much hate"s suburbanite breeders like you?
Hypocrite.
While those 40 homes lead to greater tax revenue, the amount of expense they demand is even greater.
Anywhere I've lived, even sky-high property tax NJ, the property tax coming from a single home is rather less than the town is paying to educate a single child. So unless the average child density in that development is much less than 1 (say, 0.75 children per house), despite the town collecting more taxes, they'll be spending much more on schools, and it'll be a net loss. And that's before we consider the cost of other services at all...