Suburban sprawl encroaches on rural townships in Ohio

Some farms don’t generate enough to serve as a family’s primary income.

MAINEVILLE, Ohio (AP) — Rural townships are imposing impact fees and other regulations on new residential development to keep suburban sprawl from encroaching on farmland in one of Ohio’s fastest-growing areas.

The population spurt is putting pressure on safety services and roadways, said Gary Boeres, community development director in Hamilton Township in Warren County outside Cincinnati.

To cope with growth costs, the township imposed an impact fee on new development that led to a bitter and unresolved court challenge from home builders. Government officials also have changed a zoning code to limit the density of homes in rural areas.

From 2002 to 2007, the number of farms in Warren County fell 14 percent from 1,036 to 896, one of the sharpest declines in the state. Before the recession hit, Hamilton Township saw an average of 600 new homes built each year from 2002 to 2006.

“It’s hard for a community of our size to manage,” Boeres said.

In nearby Turtlecreek Township, once a heavily rural area east of the small city of Lebanon, an entire new village called San Mar Gale is being planned.

“I used to ride my bicycle to town and never pass a single car,” said township Trustee Dan Jones, who grew up in the area. “That’s certainly changed. But I think we are managing it well.”

Some small and medium-sized farms don’t generate enough to serve as a family’s primary income, putting pressure on farmers to sell land.

“Many leave farming to get a job,” said Christy Montoya, an organizational director with the Ohio Farm Bureau. “Livestock-based and grain farms have taken a major hit.”

The best way to save farms is to develop land where it’s appropriate and preserve the rest, said Farm Bureau spokesman Joe Cornely.

“Don’t jump 10 miles up the road and start over,” Cornely said of developing vacant land and farm land into commercial and residential areas. “If we’re moving out, let’s move out to adjacent tracts of land; let’s grow where it makes economic sense.”

For farm advocates such as Terry Banker, who owns two medium-sized farms near Lebanon, the time is now to support and protect local farms.

“You don’t know what you have until it’s gone,” Banker said.

“And by then, you can’t get it back.”