Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 25, 1993 TAG: 9307230192
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RINER LENGTH: Long
Times are changing, and the blueprint of the future is leaving an indelible mark on the landscape.
Across Virginia - the nation's 10th fastest growing state - agricultural lands are subsiding as urban and suburban areas grow.
The situation is particularly acute on the fringes of the state's regional growth centers, in northern and eastern Virginia.
"Farmers in and around America's great metropolitan areas are in trouble," said Ralph E. Grossi, president of American Farmland Trust. "Literally and figuratively, they are living and operating on the edge."
But it's true of other areas, too, including the New River Valley, where growth is moderate.
"We've been concerned about urbanization for many years now," said J. Carlton Courter III, president of the Virginia Agribusiness Council.
According to federal and state statistics, the number of farms in Virginia dropped 43 percent between 1970 and 1992.
Likewise, farm acreage fell about 24 percent.
The American Farmland Trust this week cited the Shenandoah Valley as one of the nation's most endangered farming regions.
The trust studied agricultural production, population growth, production per acre and farmland loss in creating the list.
Local and state farming activists agreed that agriculture in the valley is being pushed out by suburban growth.
"What we're seeing is that the farm economy is really tight," said Paul G. Anderson, president of the Frederick County Farm Bureau.
"It's harder and harder for people to make a living as a farmer with the restrictions and regulations they put on us," he said. "You end up selling your farm in order to survive." As land prices soar, it becomes more tempting to give up the struggle and sell.
Statewide statistics indicate the average per-acre value of farmland has increased almost fivefold during the past two decades.
However, that increase has more to do with the attractiveness of farmland for development than the land's value for farming.
"Profitability on Virginia farms has not been good over the past 20 years, and Virginia farmers continue to operate on comparatively low profit margins," according to a recently released report from the Virginia Cattle Industry Board.
Also, the average Virginia cattle farmer is in his or her late 50s.
"Aging cattle farmers planning for retirement too often see no recourse but to sell their property or some portion of it to pay expenses," said the cattle organization's report.
"Often such land is sub-divided for residential or other non-farm use. These factors put Virginia's pastoral countryside in jeopardy."
The cattle board said residential development places new stresses on local revenues.
As an example, the board cited Culpeper County, a traditionally agricultural northern Virginia locality now being absorbed by Washington metropolitan area growth.
In 1988, each residential unit there produced a net loss of $429 annually for services required - including utilities, emergency services and schools - over revenue generated by taxes.
Each new residential unit would cost an estimated additional $813 annually for expanded local services and facilities.
"These deficits are subsidized by revenues from farm, forest and commercial/industrial properties," said the cattle board.
The squeeze already is being felt at Auburn High School in Riner, where new residential developments on agricultural land are bringing more students and crowded classrooms.
Last year at a school budget hearing, an Auburn High teacher called the loss of farm land "disheartening . . . Agriculture seems to be losing its significance. Our farm population has not shared in the increased wealth of people in this county."
In the New River Valley, the most recent statistics show that the amount of active farmland fell by 23,335 acres between 1982 and 1987.
Statewide during the same period, 140,000 acres of farm and open land was converted to urban use, including an estimated 37,000 acres classified as prime agricultural land.
Pressures on agricultural land has forced many Virginia localities to examine ways to balance economic growth with preservation of open spaces.
Creative methods, such as use-value taxation, agricultural districting, conservation easements and transferable development rights, are being considered or used to help preserve agricultural lands.
Protecting farmland was indicated as a major concern of Montgomery County citizens during a series of 1992 workshops on open-space planning.
A $35,000 grant from the Virginia Environmental Endowment has funded the development of an open-space plan for Montgomery County and Blacksburg.
The plan, under review by the county Planning Commission, suggests the county should review the effectiveness of its methods of agricultural land preservation, County Planner Joe Powers said.
A public hearing on the issue will be held, perhaps as soon as September, he said.
Some information for this story was provided by the Associated Press.
by CNB