New Growth Trends Impact our Rural Areas
 What is happening in Delaware's rural areas? Recently, the news media has been full of articles that describe the changes coming to our traditionally quiet working landscapes. One serious issue is that suburban residents don't like living with modern agricultural practices. A Dover area farming family learned this first hand when they encountered opposition from neighbors as they recently sought to diversify their large farming operation by constructing poultry houses. Nearby residents were shocked at the prospect of living near a complex of poultry houses, with its attendant dust, odors, and occasional truck traffic. One resident interviewed by the Dover Post complained that the facility "could have a disastrous effect on the lives and property values of those living near the site." "I'm not against them making a living," she added, "but let's find another place for it." With suburban residential development encroaching throughout Delaware's agricultural areas, there soon will be few places left to expand farms with modern, value-added practices such as poultry houses. Is it the farm that is in the wrong location, or are the suburban residents misplaced in the midst of our rural areas? The farmer summed up the issue in the Dover Post article. "We do want to work with our neighbors," he said. However, he added, "Everyone wants to live in a rural area, but they don't want to deal with what it takes to make it farmland."

These same frustrations were underscored by another downstate farmer in a June 2005 News Journal article about the Sprawl Prevention Act. The farmer is concerned that intense development pressure is "overburdening roads, polluting waterways, and compromising rural lifestyles." (News Journal, 6/5/05) He goes on to note that when land prices are inflated due to development pressure, new farmers can't purchase land for farming and it is very hard for existing farms to expand their operations. "Residents moving into new developments in rural areas might not be ready for the lifestyle. They often complain to regulators about farm odors and the early and late hours farmers work during planting and harvesting seasons. Enough complaints over enough time, coupled with increases in land value because of its proximity to development, often conspire to drive farmers off of the land."

Unfortunately, these trends are now affecting even the Amish community in Kent County. The Amish are excellent farmers and crafts people who work without the benefits of modern machinery in accordance with their religious beliefs. They prefer to live in rural areas and practice their simple lifestyle away from the stresses of the modern world. Rural western Kent County used to be one such place, but suburban development is pressuring many Amish into leaving the state. The Dover Post and the News Journal both recently reported that many Amish families are selling their farms and moving to rural areas in states such as Missouri to escape suburbanization. Development, high land values and traffic seem mostly to blame for this sentiment. Development pressure has inflated the value of nearby land. Traffic is a serious concern to the Amish, who travel in traditional horse and buggies. One Amish resident interviewed for the story, who bought his farm four years ago, used to be able to take his horse and buggy to Spence's Bazaar in Dover to shop. Now traffic has increased so much that he has to hire someone to drive him. "I know people from New York City or New Jersey or somewhere could move in and say 'oh yes, it's country, it's really rural,' but to us it's not as rural as we'd like to see it," explained the Amish farmer.

Fragmented farmland, traffic, development pressure, conflicts between farmers and neighbors, the Amish leaving Delaware . . . these are not the headlines we would have expected to see in Delaware even a few years ago. Regrettably, the development pressures we are now experiencing our not in accordance with our vision of how Delaware should grow and develop. In fact, the pressure is so great that the regulations currently in place must be reevaluated because they are not having the desired effect as expressed in local and state planning documents.

Read the complete article from State of Delaware »