Agricultural Zoning: Impacts and Future Directions

Farmland preservation has become a growing societal concern over the past two decades and is now a common component of any serious discussion of environmental land-use controls. All levels of government have perceived farmland preservation as an important societal goal and have responded with a variety of programs to slow and control the rate of conversion. This article will examine agricultural zoning as a farmland preservation tool. Part one will briefly examine types of agricultural zoning restrictions.

Part two, which is the main focus of the article, will examine the impacts of agricultural zoning from four perspectives: (1) Its Legal Impact; (2) Its Economic Impact; (3) Its Development Impact; and (4) Its Effectiveness as a farmland preservation tool. Finally, the last section of the article will give some brief recommendations on the directions agricultural zoning might take.