Background
Speak Up For Farm Security, Fair Development
For centuries, Maryland's Eastern Shore has been an idyllic landscape of farms and quaint small towns. With a traditional way of life built from generations of living in accordance with the land, residents continue to depend on farming to maintain a thriving economy.
While agriculture remains the Eastern Shore's top industry, the Shore is rapidly losing its rural character and small town charm. Our counties face development proposals on their rural lands, while our towns face proposals along their edges that would double, triple and even quadruple their current populations.
Security for farming
Farmers hold the Eastern Shore's future in their hands. Their lands and livelihood are key to our economy's health, our close-knit rural communities and the look of the Shore's landscape. Protecting land safeguards agriculture and decreases the burden on county services, such as roads, schools and ambulance/fire, because new development is directed in and around towns, allowing our farmers to continue farming.
ESLC believes farmers deserve choices for protecting their land. Protective Agricultural Zoning, for instance, keeps in check the number of houses that can be built on a farm. Most Eastern Shore counties use Protective Zoning of at least 1:20, meaning only one home can be built for every 20 acres of farmland. However, the counties under the most development pressure, Queen Anne's and Cecil, have the least protective zoning, at around 1:8.
Purchase of Development Rights programs, which raise local money for land protection, and Transfer of Developments Rights programs, which allow you to transfer development rights from a farm to a town, where growth is better suited, are also good options for counties to offer landowners. A fully funded Program Open Space, the State program that pays landowners for development rights, is also needed.
Fair development and sound planning
In the last two years, more than 6,000 acres of annexed land and thousands of homes have been proposed for our small towns. In 2004, according to the Washington Post, about 800 homes were proposed for tiny Queenstown, which currently has a population of approximately 600 residents. In the same year, more than 4,000 homes were proposed for Denton, which would increase its population by nearly 300 percent.
To reverse the current development pressures on our towns and counties, ESLC recommends that we all work together to: find fair solutions to the huge size of development proposals along our towns' edges, support our town and county planning staffs, protect the Eastern Shore's farmland, and ensure that our small towns remain prospering, affordable places to live.
What can you do?
The Eastern Shore's citizens can rally around these issues by advocating for a balance between farming security and new development that is soundly planned, appropriately sized and well placed. On this site, you can sign up for email alerts on hot Eastern Shore issues.