Thomas L. Daniels

Land Preservation: An Essential Ingredient in Smart Growth

The preservation of land for working rural landscapes, wildlife habitat, urban parks, recreational trails, and protecting water supplies and floodplains is emerging as an integral component of smart growth programs. Both the general public and nonprofit organizations have been willing to spend billions of dollars on land preservation because of a perception that traditional land use planning and regulation are not successfully accommodating growth or protecting valuable natural resources. The literature on smart growth has largely overlooked the potential of land preservation to curb sprawl and to foster livable communities. The literature on land preservation has focused on the mechanics of conservation easements and land purchases rather than on how land preservation can fit in the comprehensive planning process to achieve community smart growth goals. More research needs to be done on the strategic use of land preservation in shaping and directing growth as part of a comprehensive planning effort.

The Purchase of Development Rights: Preserving Agricultural Land and Open Space

Abstract The use of public money to purchase development rights to privately held land has become increasingly popular in recent years as a way to preserve agricultural land and open space. Several states and counties have devoted substantial dollars toward the purchase of development rights (PDR). The majority of PDR programs are found in the Northeast, and are particularly popular in urban fringe areas where farmland and open space are under intense pressure for conversion to urban or suburban uses. It is unlikely, however, that PDR programs alone can preserve a critical mass of farmland. Indeed, a number of states have chosen not to use PDRs among their growth management techniques. Although PDR programs are likely to remain controversial because of the sizable costs involved, they do offer more permanent farmland protection than zoning or property tax breaks and provide private landowners with compensation in return for restrictions on development.

Is Oregon's farmland preservation program working?

Abstract Oregons nationally recognized farmland protection program has had some success, but the future viability of commercial farming in Oregon remains in doubt. The recent proliferation of hobby farms threatens that viability by increasing land prices and fragmenting land holdings, thus hindering the expansion of commercial farms and the consolidation of parcels into commercial farm units. To curb the growth in hobby farms, Oregons legislature and courts have tightened the standards that govern future residential development in agricultural zones. Local governments also have recognized the hobby farm problem and appear to have improved their administration of the state-mandated farmland preservation program.

The Oregon Land Use Act Implications for Farmland and Open Space Protection

Abstract In 1973, Oregon adopted a statewide comprehensive land use management program. It represents an important new approach in land use control and merits careful consideration and examination by land use analysts, policy makers, and the public. By providing statewide standards for land use planning and implementation carried out through an ongoing local administrative process, an important state land use management role has been established and, many argue, without a substantial erosion of local flexibility. Rural land use management, particularly farmland protection, is an important component of the Oregon program. The combination of state mandated, locally implemented urban growth boundary designations and exclusive farm use zoning represents a unique case in farmland protection policy. The performance of the program is evaluated, and economic trade-offs in the selection of minimum lot size standards are discussed. This program offers the promise of substantially improving rural land use management...

Hobby farming in America: Rural development or threat to commercial agriculture?

Abstract Part-time farming has increased throughout the developed countries since World War II. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the United States experienced a large and widespread increase in the number of farms of less than 50 acres, most of which sold less than

Small town triage: a rural settlement policy for the American Midwest

10,000 a year in farm products. The majority of these were ‘hobby’ farms and were located in rural-urban fringe areas of growing nonmetropolitan regions. In sufficient numbers, the proliferation of these hobby farms may threaten the future viability of commercial farm operations by raising land prices, fragmenting land holdings, and thus hindering the expansion of commercial farms and the consolidation of parcels into commercial farm units. Americas state and local governments have been slow to regulate the spread of hobby farms in the rural-urban fringe and in growing nonmetropolitan areas. Attempts in the State of Oregon to control hobby farms have met with mixed success. Yet the Oregon approach offers important lessons for other areas of the United States as well as other developed countries. In fringe areas in particular, policies and incentives need to be devised and implemented to locate hobby farms away from commercial farming areas and to eliminate tax subsidies for hobby farms so that the long-term viability of commercial farming can be maintained.

Short Paper: A Signal Fingerprinting Paradigm for General Physical Layer and Sensor Network Security and Assurance

Abstract The American Midwest of the 1980s has suffered from a depressed farm economy which has led to rural depopulation. Small towns of fewer than 2500 people have been especially hard hit, and state and federal government spending cuts will tend to accelerate the decline of these towns. The State of Iowa has a multitude of small towns struggling for survival. Iowa faces the choice of spreading public resources among many towns or concentrating those resources on a relative few. In fact, a key settlement policy may be emerging as a means to create growth centers in rural areas and thus limit depopulation and promote economic diversification. Potential growth centers and investment strategies need to be further identified so that state economic development funds can be targeted spent in the most cost-effective manner. This will require considerable regional and state planning and coordination in implementation.

Has Vermont's Land Use Control Program Failed? Evaluating Act 250

In this paper, we present a new paradigm for security in conventional networks that has dramatic implications for improving their physical layer network security. We call this paradigm, Detecting Intrusions at Layer ONe (DILON). DILON’s enabling hypothesis is that the inherent variability in the construction of digital devices leads to significant variability in their analog signaling. This is true not only for different device models but even for nearly identical devices of the same manufacturing lot. The idea is that by oversampling digital signals to make analog measurements that constitute “voiceprints” of network devices. These form a profile that can be used for detecting MAC address spoofing, reconfiguration of network topologies, and in the long term possibly predict the failure of network devices. This paper discusses historic references and how digital networks enable new approaches as well as a number of applications.

Agricultural zoning in a metropolitan county: an evaluation of the Black Hawk County, Iowa, program

Abstract Vermonts land use control program, commonly known as Act 250, apparently is having difficulty in achieving its main goal: mitigating the negative environmental effects of development. This article contends that because the law was aimed at large-scale development, it has allowed environmentally damaging small-scale subdivisions to escape review. The law also has fostered large-lot subdivisions, which are detrimental to the future of farm and forestry operations. With respect to other goals of the law, it has not stemmed building activity in general or deterred land sales or purchases by out-of-state residents. In the long run, Vermont must regulate both large- and small-scale development to achieve its environmental and community protection goals.

Where Does Cluster Zoning Fit in Farmland Protection

Abstract Over 400 counties in the United States currently have agricultural zoning regulations which seek to protect the local farmland base. Many of these counties either contain a large urban center or are adjacent to metropolitan counties. Yet, few studies have been conducted on the performance of county agricultural zoning programs. Such a study is of particular importance to sustaining agriculture near urban areas. If a certain agricultural zoning program is successful, we should learn why it is successful and whether it can be transferred to other counties or localities. On the other hand, if an agricultural zoning program is not achieving desired goals, we should learn why and how shortcomings might be corrected. Black Hawk County, Iowa, is a metropolitan county with over 100 000 people. The county is also a major corn, soya bean and livestock producer, accounting for