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May 31, 2001 Preserving a way of life When we here the term “urban sprawl,†we often think of fast-growing communities on the outskirts of large metropolitan areas. The truth is that urban sprawl affects all of us – from St. Louis to Kansas City, from the Bootheel to the Ozarks. All across Missouri dozens of communities are growing at a breakneck pace, and at a rate faster than city planning, local infrastructure and school districts can keep up. Often, this has come at a social cost to our communities in Missouri, as the tentacles of development slowly consume our greenspaces and convert them into parking lots and strip mall. Not only are we sacrificing the future when we pave over a future park, playground or wildlife preserve, we are also losing a bit our heritage and our past by taking valuable farmland out of production. With that in mind the Missouri General Assembly passed the Farmland Protection Act during this past legislative session, a bill I have sponsored for the past three years. The Farmland Protection act is a measure aimed at keeping municipalities and real estate developers from snapping up farmland from owners who are not ready to sell. Under this proposal, agricultural land cannot be taken by eminent domain by a political subdivision without a public hearing. In addition, any public service company building water or sewer lines across a property cannot assess the landowner for utilities that they cannot use. For the past few decades our cities have been expanding into rural areas used solely for agricultural production with developers building homes on the outskirts of cities in the midst of farms, then demanding utilities and city services. This bill will keep landowners from having to pay for improvements they don’t want or need until such time that they might hook up to a public water or sewer system. The legislation is the result of cases from around the state where municipal utilities have crossed farmland to extend services to homes on the outskirts of town. In several of these instances, farmers have been assessed tens of thousands of dollars for the “improvements,†even though the landowner received no benefit. In extreme situations, landowners could be forced to sell their property to pay these “improvements.†By prohibiting these assessments and requiring a public hearing before land can be claimed via eminent domain, the process will be brought out into the open and a true overriding public purpose must be served before the condemnation process can proceed. With farmland disappearing at an alarming rate and with many farmers in dire financial straits due to low commodity prices, we felt that it was our duty to assist the agriculture community in this way. After all, it is the family farms that serve as the economic base of many of our rural communities. But protecting farms from urban encroachment preserves more than a local economy - - it helps preserve a way of life. Yet the bottom line is that the Farmland Protection Act is a matter of fairness. Depriving citizens of their property rights is serious business, as many family farms represent generations of dedication and hard work. Every citizen has a right to his or her own property and to do with it as they see fit, provided it does not adversely affect others. And if it is determined that there may be an overriding public concern to the contrary, then property owners are entitled to a fair and open hearing so that the public’s will might be known. Our farmers should not have to face additional burdens in their struggle to protect a way of life handed to them by their fathers, their grandfathers, and their fathers before them. And by preserving those natural, open spaces, we might also preserve a future park or playground that our children and grandchildren can enjoy long after we’ve gone. | |||||
Paid for by Kreider for Senator.
Bobby Neal Jr., Treasurer. Not at taxpayer's expense.
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