The new Working Lands Initiative in Wisconsin seeks to either a) preserve farmland for farming operations or b) prevent developers from building shopping malls and subdivisions. It depends upon your point of view.
In southern Wisconsin, farmers are selling land to commercial developers. This places two problems on the remaining farmers: 1. housing construction creates neighbors that don’t want farming smells and noises, and 2. the land that once grew hay to feed the animals is gone and farmers have to pay more to bring feed to their animals. This has a major impact on dairy-farming.
The legislative solution in Wisconsin was to create the Working Lands Initiative (WLI) to preserve farmland throughout the state. This initiative gives power to the county to create agricultural preservation plans that prevent land owners from selling out to developers. In exchange, the farmers obtain preferred income tax credits.
It’s a little complex but the county can declare certain areas to be preserved for farming. In these areas, the land is loaded up with regulations that restrict how the land cannot be used for non-farming purposes. In essence, once declared a farmland preservation area , the farm, and thus the farmer, can and/or cannot do the following:
1. Can sell the land to other farmers for farming operations
2. Can change the zoning and sell the land to developers by paying a conversion fee of 3x the amount the land is worth as agricultural land. ( Yup, three times the value of the land itself! Extortion by another name!)
3. Can without re-zoning, sell off enough land to build 4 houses… but only if the total amount of land sold is no more than 5% of the size of the original farm. Oh, and by the way, the other 95% of the land can never have another residence built upon it unless the zoning is changed and the conversion fee is paid.
4. You cannot do any of this if your land is considered prime farming land OR if the selling of your farmland would impact your neighbors ability to farm his own land. Example, you wish to sell four lots of ten acres each that abuts your neighbors property. If your land is prime farming land, too bad so sad. You are prohibited from selling your land for this purpose. Another example, your neighbor is engaged in a farming operation that is not permitted within X feet of residential property. If you sell your lots, your neighbor can no longer farm as he once did. The farming operation may be related to noise, ground water, or smells that are not permitted in residential areas by law. Too bad, you cannot sell your land if your neighbor’s farm is impacted.
I predict that this WLI will cause the following effects if unchanged:
1. Large animal operations will seek to prevent development in their surrounding areas.
2. Ten- to forty-acre parcels will no longer be carved out for private purchase and sold by local farmers when money is needed.
3. The number of possible farm buyers will dwindle to only rich farmers. Developers and private purchasers will not want those restrictions placed on the use of the land they buy. This will lead to fewer farm owners within 20 years. Possibly only giant farming corporations will remain in another 25 years.
4. Local communities will not have the option of development to expand their communities. Property tax revenues will come mainly from the corporate farms and not citizens. This places the corporate farms in the same position as the mining towns out west …with expanded power over the local community. A Farm Town may have a whole new meaning in the future.
I don’t like this Working Land Initiative as it appears aimed at destroying the family farm of a couple of hundred acres and replacing it with mega-farms protected by law.
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