Farmland
bigeastern (a great blog tracking events relating to the environment in Northern Indiana) and the Indiana Law Blog direct attention to a good piece in the Chesterton Tribune about a zoning dispute in Porter County that pits the property rights of land owners againt the communities interest in preserving prime agricultural land. Link.
This is a big issue throughout most of the state as traditional city dwellers seek out tracks in the country to improve their quality of life. In Wayne County, we have seen the population largest city (Richmond) decrease steadily, while the population in the county has been basically flat. More and more folks find the suburbs too confining and opt for a more rural setting. Many folks are also concerned with the quality of the educational system in Richmond’s large urban school district and move to the country to gain access to the smaller county schools. The recent ISTEP test results show that Richmond Community Schools consistently underperforms its more rural neighbors, and this has a big impact on peoples perceptions. The local results are as follows:
I know from local experience that whenever someone goes to the local zoning board to gain a change in zoning to permit development, the first question from the board members is about the quality of the land for agricultural purposes. If the land is “prime” the owner will have an uphill battle.
