11/02/2006

Ohio State Center Announces Farmland Protection Grants

Writer:

Martha Filipic
filipic.3@cfaes.osu.edu
(614) 292-9833

Source:

Jill Clark, Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics
clark.1099@osu.edu
(614) 247-6479

Alan Donley
alandonley@csassoftware.com
(330) 569-7883

Ann Obrecht
aobrecht@wayneohio.org
(330) 287-5400

Katie Myers
kmyers@wayneohio.org
(330) 287-5420

John Detrick
(937) 328-2405 ext. 4

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Today, Ohio State University's Center for Farmland Policy Innovation announced support for three projects to test-drive new ideas to protect Ohio's farmland.

The grants, totaling more than $100,000, went to applicants in Portage, Wayne and Clark counties. The center will act as a partner on each of the projects, and each community is contributing at least a 25 percent local match in either direct or in-kind funding.

"I think this is the first step toward seeing some really innovative, creative ways to protect Ohio's farmland while also encouraging smart development in the state," said Jill Clark, interim director of the center, housed in Ohio State University's College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. These are the first awards made through the center's Farmland Protection Partnership Program. The center is planning to request proposals for another round of funding in 2007, said Clark, who also has a partial appointment with Ohio State University Extension.

Clark announced the awards at the 7th Annual Ohio Farmland Preservation Summit at the Ohio Department of Agriculture today (Thursday, Nov. 2). U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine attended the event and addressed the group on the importance of protecting farmland.

The awards went to:

• A partnership between the village of Hiram, Hiram Township and Hiram College in Portage County to determine whether Transfers of Development Rights (TDRs) are a viable tool to protect farmland in the township and stimulate growth in the village. TDRs, which have been used in other states to protect farmland but never before in Ohio, focus development in areas that have the services to handle growth and protect land in areas that don't. Farmers are compensated for protected land and developers are provided bonuses in areas that are considered to be able to handle growth.

"We are intrigued by the idea of TDRs, but people here have a lot of questions about them," said Alan Donley, a councilman for the village of Hiram and one of the grant applicants. With the $58,900 grant and local support from collaborators (including the Portage County Regional Planning Commission, Hiram Township, Hiram College, the village of Hiram, the Hiram Comprehensive Planning Group, and Citizens for Hiram), the community will form a Citizens Advisory Committee of economic development officials, realtors, farmers, developers and others. The committee will hold seminars and work with an expert to determine whether TDRs will work in the Hiram area. The end result will be a feasibility study that will then translate into policy and program recommendations for the area.

"This is forging new ground in Ohio," Clark said. "It's a very exciting project and will have implications statewide."

Donley added that the community is taking the project seriously.

"My understanding is that TDRs are permanent, and that's a big flag for a lot of people here -- there's a concern about doing something now that will affect future generations," Donley said. "But we have heard of a community in Pennsylvania where TDRs have worked well, and I think this project is a splendid testimony to our community working together to plan for the future."

• Wayne County, which, along with collaborators in Holmes and Ashland counties, will use the $17,875 grant to conduct a comprehensive review of all the county's policies to determine their effect on agriculture and land use, and then suggest revisions to present to county commissioners. The process will begin in Wayne County and be replicated in the other two counties.

About three years ago, Wayne County formed an Ag Success Team to discuss area-wide strategies to support agriculture, said Ann Obrecht, Wayne County commissioner.

"Wayne County has been one of Ohio's leading agricultural counties for decades, and we want to retain and expand agriculture in Wayne and surrounding counties," Obrecht said. "With this grant, we'll be looking at all county policies that might have an effect on land use, including subdivision regulations, water use policies, health department regulations and engineering codes. We've faced state and federal regulations that have unintended consequences, and we thought we might have some of those, too. And if so, we want to do something about it."

Katie Myers of the Wayne County Planning Department will be leading the 20-month effort. "I'm sure the process of creating the policy audit model will have surprising turns," Myers said. "We're stepping into uncharted waters, but we're very excited about it."

• Clark County for the "Clark County Farmland Policy Innovation Program: Agriculture in the Economy," which will develop a strategy for finding a funding source to protect an additional 10,000 acres of farmland in its ongoing farmland preservation program -- a joint venture with the Tecumseh Land Trust.

"We started a partnership with the Tecumseh Land Trust six years ago, when we gave them $50,000 in seed money," said John Detrick, Clark County commissioner. "They've turned that into $4 million, and when the program is over, it will be $5 million, all to save farmland in Clark County."

By protecting farmland, the public/private partnership will bring more value-added agriculture to the county, he said.

"We are already one of the leading counties in the Midwest, and probably in the United States, in preserving farmland," Detrick said, with 10,000 acres currently held in the land trust. "And we're really happy to have this $36,000 grant to continue that work."

The Center for Farmland Policy Innovation began operations in March 2006 with funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service. The goals for the center's Farmland Protection Partnership Program include supporting projects that would be successful in protecting farmland on a local basis; encouraging innovative programs in Ohio and offering them as examples for the rest of the state; and offering support to help local governments do more to protect farmland.

For more information about this program, see the center's Web site at http://cffpi.osu.edu/program.htm.

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