On Thursday, the Capital Area Regional Planning Commission will conduct a public hearing to consider policies and rules to accommodate population growth in Dane County.
As we all know, Dane County has experienced tremendous growth in the past and is expected to continue to do so. How we accommodate this expected population growth is a crucial matter, making the policies that are being considered by CARPC particularly important.
The city of Verona believes Dane County 's expected growth should be directed toward established urban areas. Cities and villages require less land to accommodate people than does non-urban development. When population growth is directed toward urban areas, less farmland is consumed and the human "footprint " on the environment is minimized.
The most effective protection of farmlands and open space is to promote and encourage denser urban, rather than rural, land development.
In other words, the answer to the question "how do we protect farmland and open space in Dane County? " is by promoting and facilitating dense, urban development.
Unfortunately, the proposed policies that have been distributed by CARPC for consideration on Thursday appear to do just the opposite. The proposed CARPC policies create a variety of regulations, added costs, and restrictions on urban development that will promote faster land consumption of agricultural properties.
Perhaps more importantly, the proposed policies remain silent on development in rural areas. For example, the proposed rules would create "farmland loss mitigation " costs for urban development, while imposing no such costs on development outside of urban areas.
The way to protect farmland is not by imposing additional costs for dense urban development while allowing development outside of urban areas to proceed without such costs. The additional costs imposed on urban development will be passed on to the home buyer, making affordable housing even more elusive.
Verona urban development results in a typical density between five and 12 dwelling units per acre, while non-urban development typically creates one or fewer dwelling units per acre.
Dense urban development should be rewarded rather than saddled with additional costs and disincentives. Ironically, these well-intended ideas will only create additional market pressure for low-density development in rural areas.
The CARPC also proposes to restrict the amount of land that is available for urban development through the elimination of what is called a "flexibility margin. "
If the supply of land available for dense urban development is restricted, as proposed, without similar restrictions imposed on rural lands, pressure for low-density development in rural areas will dramatically increase.
The city of Verona supports the stated goals of the CARPC to promote efficient land development and in the process to protect farmlands and open space in Dane County.
The CARPC should re-evaluate its proposed policies to ensure they will have the desired effect. Specifically, the city of Verona requests the CARPC create rules that reduce the costs of dense, efficient urban development, that promote and facilitate urban development, and that ensure that adequate amounts of land are available for urban development.
