Growth, Development, and Land Preservation

Cramped housing near Aberdeen Proving Ground during World War II. Courtesy of The Aegis.

Harford County's Growing Population

While Harford County remained agricultural in nature through the first half of the twentieth century, pressures to develop farmland into residential and commercial properties grew. During World War II, local demand for housing so outstripped supply near Aberdeen Proving Ground that people began converting granaries, garages, and even chicken coops to rent to soldiers and their families.

In the postwar era, with the construction of new interstate highways like I-95, the population shifted drastically as people began to move out of Baltimore City neighborhoods and into formerly rural areas. So-called “bedroom communities”—suburbs populated by workers commuting into the city—developed near highway interchanges.

Route 24 where it intersects Route 1, before it officially opened in fall 1987. It was predicted to serve some 20,000 vehicles daily, but present-day traffic is easily double that number.
Image courtesy Pat Harkins, The Baltimore Sun.

Planning for Harford County’s realigned Route 24, which opened the county’s interior to development, began in the late 1950s. During the years of planning, funding, and land swaps, the county’s population doubled from 1940 to 1960, and more than doubled again by the road’s opening in 1987.

Land Preservation in Harford County

How?

A main method of preserving farmland as agricultural (rather than being subdivided for development) is through conservation easements. These allow the farmer to maintain ownership of the land, but place restrictions on the future uses of the land—especially development rights. Land trusts, which administer these agreements, often receive the easements as donations, but the county and state also do some limited purchasing of easements/development rights. Farmers hoping to sell their development rights must apply and have their farmland ranked, and are then placed on a waiting list.

Some counties also allow transfer of development rights. Rural landowners can sell the development rights that apply to their land to a private developer who owns land elsewhere, and the developer could build at a higher density on their land than they would typically be allowed.

Why?

As income from farming decreases, selling land to housing developers starts to appeal. Conservation easements provide some economic incentives to keep farmers on their land. Some regions provide lump sum payments to farmers in exchange for their conservation easement, while others pay on installment over several decades. Even donated easements provide some tax breaks.

Counties and states use these programs to protect their essential character and a certain quality of life for their residents. There are also environmental impacts to development that can be offset or at least managed. Perhaps most significantly, these programs provide a tool to direct regional growth toward existing infrastructure–roads, sewers, and schools.

Milestones in Agricultural Land Preservation

1961 - New Jersey initiates “Green Acres” program to combat sprawl

1964 - Montgomery County (MD) produces On Wedges and Corridors, a plan to concentrate growth along transportation corridors

1967 - Maryland General Assembly establishes Maryland Environmental Trust, to “conserve, improve, stimulate, and perpetuate the aesthetic, natural, health and welfare, scenic, and cultural qualities of the environment, including, but not limited to land, water, air, wildlife, scenic qualities, and open spaces.”

1969 - Harford County (MD) authors its first master plan for development

1972 - Maryland Environmental Trust purchases its first easement

1974 - Suffolk County (New York) farmland preservation program initiates purchase of development rights to protect land

1977 - Maryland General Assembly establishes Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation, second oldest in United States

1977 - Harford County (MD) creates “development envelope” to corral growth

1979 - USDA & President’s Council on Environmental Quality sponsor National Agricultural Lands Study to consider disappearing farmland, note potential consequences, and suggest methods of control

1980 - Montgomery County (MD) creates Agricultural Reserve created to protect farmland facing development pressures

1983 - New Jersey establishes Farmland Preservation Program

1989 - Howard County (MD) develops initiates use of installment payments to spread cost of purchases over several decades

1993 - Harford County (MD) founds Harford Agricultural Land Preservation Program, one of first to use Installment Purchase Agreements