County approaches to farmland protection: Zoning is the basis for efforts by four dissimilar counties in Washington State to protect their remaining farmland

Frederick Steiner; Richard Dunford; Lori Koler

Zoning is the basis for efforts by four dissimilar counties in Washington State to protect their remaining farmland

Excerpt

IN the past decade, the conversion of farmland to nonfarm uses emerged as a major planning issue in the United States and Canada (1, 2, 3). As in other American states and Canadian provinces, there has been much discussion in Washington State about the loss of farmland and what should be done about it. In recent years, four disparate counties in the state—Clark, Skagit, Whitman, and Yakima—have enacted farmland protection programs. While the four counties all use zoning as a foundation, their programs are quite dissimilar.

Some background

Each county's distinctive characteristics played a crucial role in the formation of the farmland protection program. Clark County is part of the second largest metropolitan area (Portland, Oregon) in the Pacific Northwest. Agriculture is in a state of transition. Relatively large commercial dairy farms are being fragmented and shifted to small-scale agricultural uses, such as vineyards and nurseries. Dairying and other farm enterprises remain strong in the more remote regions of the county, but 10 to 20-acre (4- to 8.1-hectare) ranchettes predominant in the more accessible areas in the southern part of the county. The changing character of agriculture is directly attributable …

Footnotes

Frederick Steiner is an associate professor of landscape architecture and regional planning at Washington State University, Pullman. 99164. Richard Dunford is an associate professor of agricultural economics at WSU. Lori Koler was a student intern from Evergreen State College at the Washington State Planning and Community Affairs Agency when the work described in this article was done. Scientific Paper No. 6223. College of Agriculture Research Center, Washington State University, Pullman, 99164. This work was financially supported in part by the American Farmland Trust, Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1983 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society

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