Grassroots
Agricultural Zoning in Bedford County
Last week’s column examined the six types of residential zoning districts in Bedford County. Together, these residential zones make up nearly 17 percent of our county. By far, the largest portion of Bedford County is zoned agricultural – 80 percent of the county. Residential development is allowed in these districts, which include AP (Agricultural/Rural Preserve Districts), AR (Agricultural/Residential Districts), and AV (Agricultural Village Center Districts).
Of the three agricultural designations, the AP (Agricultural/Rural Preserve) districts comprise the lion’s share, 61 percent. AP districts are primarily farmland and woodlands with some residencies serviced by “agricultural villages,” which are zoned AV. According to the Zoning Ordinance, the purpose of the AP designation is “to maintain areas essentially in their rural state, and attempt to protect sensitive and unique land resources from degradation.” AP designation is also intended to “minimize the demand for unanticipated public improvements and services, such as public sewer and water, by reducing development densities and discouraging large scale development.”
The qualities of AP districts – the beauty of rolling pastures and woodlands, open views of the mountains, the charm of small crossroads and country roads – are what draw visitors to Bedford County. But for many residents, this rural character represents a way of life and a heritage. AP districts are home to the single most important industry in Bedford County – its agricultural industry. Visitors may appreciate the scenery without realizing that these districts are made up of working farmland that is an important economic base for the county.
In some localities in the nation agricultural zoning is specifically designed to protect this vital industry; in other localities, agricultural zoning permits nonfarm activity to so large an extent that the agricultural zoning essentially constitutes a holding category for “vacant” farmland until a developer makes an offer that can’t be refused. Such zones do not really protect farmlands; it is therefore misleading to call them agricultural zones. True agricultural zoning, which limits nonfarm uses and often mandates very large, farm-sized lots, has as its aim the protection and maintenance of farm operations. Bedford County’s agricultural zoning is not “true” agricultural zoning in this sense.
An example of agricultural zoning that is specifically designed to protect the agricultural industry is the “large lot” zoning found in Marin County, California. Although Marin is well known as an affluent residential community north of San Francisco, 40 percent of its land remains in agriculture. Marin dairies supply 25 percent of the milk purchased in the San Francisco Bay metropolitan region; the annual value of agricultural production is approximately $50 million. Despite ever-increasing pressures on land values and the agricultural industry, the county has so far succeeded in maintaining its agricultural base, in large part because of firm signals to the farming community since 1970 that agriculture has a future in the county.
Policies encouraging agricultural uses over residential development have been vital to ensuring the survival of Marin’s agricultural industry. Key among such policies is agricultural zoning that mandates a minimum lot size of 60 acres in Marin’s agricultural districts. This approach to protecting agriculture has been supplemented with other approaches, principally the purchase of agricultural conservation easements and the creation of the nation’s first land trust devoted exclusively to agricultural land, MALT. Although county officials and members of the farm bureau sit on MALT’s board, it is completely independent. Today it holds agricultural conservation easements on 38 farms, totaling more than 25,000 acres – some 20 percent of the county’s privately owned agricultural land. Most of these agricultural easements were purchased through a 1988 state bond act that allotted $15 million to the county.
Bedford County’s AP zoning is fairly standard for agricultural zoning in Virginia localities that have a zoning ordinance. In general, agricultural zoning in Virginia is not intended to be a mandated way to protect farmland and support the state’s agricultural industry and Bedford is no exception to the rule.
In Bedford County, agricultural zoning is such that farmland can become residential development that is suburban in character, given the right market conditions and the existence of necessary infrastructure for development, such as the extension of water and sewer lines. In many other localities in Virginia that have zoning similar to Bedford’s AP zoning, farmland has been developed under pressure from nearby cities for “bedroom communities.”
The reason Bedford County still has “rural character” is because many farmers in these districts have not chosen to develop their property for a variety of personal reasons. Some farmers have decided to put their land in agricultural conservation easements in order to ensure its continued use as resource land. (An agricultural conservation easement is a permanent protection that a landowner voluntarily places on his or her property to limit future subdivision and development.) Some simply prefer farming to other occupations and do not want to change professions or are not yet ready to retire. Others may be waiting for options, such as a Purchase of Development Rights Program (PDR) to come to Bedford County that would allow them to realize the financial value of their land without having to sell their farms to developers. (Albemarle, Chesapeake, Culpepper, Fauquier, Hanover, Henrico, James City, Loudoun, New Kent, Powhatan, and Rappahannock Counties are involved in PDR programs at various stages of development.) Still others may simply be waiting for a developer to make them an offer they can’t refuse.
What level of development is permitted in AP zones? You may be surprised. The minimum lot requirement in all AP districts in Bedford is three acres and the maximum subdivisions of a single tract allows up to five separate, three-acre lots. If there is land left-over after this division of a tract, additional lots of 20 acres are permitted until all the land in a tract is divided. Sometimes a large tract is broken into smaller tracts prior to subdivision. This permits the higher density 3-acre lots subdivisions over a larger area. Furthermore, some subdivision of AP districts allows for even denser housing if lots were created prior to 1998 when the zoning ordinance was adopted.
While zoning can be an effective means of regulating land development in rural areas, it is not the only technique or always the best technique. Used alone it is usually unsuccessful in protecting rural character, even when its stated purpose is “maintaining areas essentially in their rural state.” Zoning such as Bedford’s AP zoning might prevent the sort of density found, for example, in R-2 (Medium Density Residential) districts, which allow a build-out density of 3 to 6 dwelling units per acre, but it would not prevent AP areas in Bedford County from becoming bedroom communities of Lynchburg and Roanoke in the future. Thus, localities such as Bedford, where farming is an important economic base, need to look at other techniques that support agriculture, such as the above-mentioned PDR programs being pursued elsewhere in the Commonwealth.
In addition to AP districts, Bedford County has two additional agricultural zones: the AR (Agricultural/Residential) districts, which make up 17 percent of the county, and its AV (Agricultural Village) districts.
The AR zones designate areas which are expected to change from rural to residential in character as growth spreads from higher density areas at the edge of urban areas (Lynchburg, Bedford, Smith Mountain Lake). The minimum lot requirement for AR districts is 1.5 acres. An example of an AR district is the Goode area, which borders AP districts to the north and south, commercial and residential districts to the east, and AP and AV districts to the west. The zoning done in 1998 identified this area as a high growth area in the future and zoned it accordingly. If Bedford County continues to growth at the rate it has been growing in recent years, the Goode area is poised to absorb some of this growth by virtue of the zoning assigned to it in 1998.
The AV (Agricultural Village) districts are small zones, established essentially as a radius around a crossroads where you might find a country store, a school or library, churches, or personal service businesses. The purpose of the AV District is to “establish the rural service areas of the county.” According to the zoning ordinance, “Any expansion of these areas should be contiguous to existing village center areas to avoid leap-frog development.” Unfortunately, the allowable build-out in AP and AR zones may generate a “leap-frog” developmental character in the county regardless of the good intentions of this zone. Sedalia, Coltons Mill, Kelso Mill, Huddleston, Chamblissburg, Jordantown, and Goode are some of the AV Districts in Bedford County.
The amount of growth that will take place in Bedford County is not fully known because there are many factors that propel development in a locality. Economic development in the nearby cities of Lynchburg and Roanoke, for example, may increase demand for suburban development in AP Districts in Bedford. Or, if water and sewer lines were to be extended into AP Districts, growth in these areas would be accelerated.
As AR Districts such as Goode are developed, requests for rezoning in adjoining AP Districts is likely. Such rezoning would allow landowners in AP Districts adjacent to AR Districts to increase the speculative value of their property because denser development is allowed in an AR district than in an AP districts. The number of changes in zoning cannot be predicted because such requests are initiated by landowners and are subject to county approval.
Understanding the level of build-out allowed in each of Bedford County’s zoning districts can prepare residents for the impact that future growth may have on them.
