Bedford Bulletin, October 30, 2002
What Are the Problems of Growth?
Often the benefits of growth seem more obvious than its problems. Growth brings numerous benefits – employment opportunities, a higher standard of living, economic vitality, better schools and roads, improved services and increased tax revenues. If growth is planned with an awareness of a locality’s unique identity and history, it can strengthen shared community values and a community’s pride in itself.
Growth, especially if it is rapid and unplanned, also can bring problems that citizens should be aware of as they participate in the current planning process underway in Bedford County, which is drafting a new comprehensive plan.
What are some of the problems of growth for rural areas, such as Bedford County? Many rural community leaders believe that because more development will increase the real estate tax base, it will help balance the budget. This may or may not be true, depending on the type of development. For example, while it is true that new residences generate additional tax revenues, the cost of additional services almost always outstrips the new revenue. This is particularly true in communities where a beautiful setting of open space, combined with employment opportunities, attracts families with school age children because the cost of building schools far exceeds all other service costs. Bedford County is toe-to-toe with this problem as we contemplate the price tag for improving aging schools in Forest and elsewhere in the county.
New residents may also demand improvements that previously were considered unnecessary, such as the paving of rural roads or increased police and fire protection. In order to offset the cost of new residential development, some communities try to attract commercial development, which contributes more in tax revenue than the cost of services it requires. Even though it is true that commercial development does provide additional revenues, it can, however, detract even more from the rural character of a place if not properly planned. It may, in turn, attract even more residential development, an outcome which may not have been intended.
Another problem of growth in rural areas is a change in the social environment. There may be new tensions between the “been heres” and the “come heres” and often few mechanisms for communication. For example, suburban development adjacent to farmland often introduces new conflicts. While former city dwellers depend on farmers for the commodities they purchase in grocery stores, they may not understand the noise, odor and dust occasionally associated with agricultural production. The difference in backgrounds can fragment communities that were once cohesive. Neighbors may no longer know or depend on each other as they once did. Country stores where neighbors meet to “chew the fat” close because they cannot compete with national chains drawn to an ever-growing market of consumers.
Growth can put a strain on other finite resources, such as water. Bedford County is already experiencing this strain. Zoning for high density housing in an area that has a limited aquifer, for example, is not only a case of poor (or no) planning, but it may be devastating to individual homeowners who share this water resource. The resale value of their homes plummets along with the water level in their wells. In addition, trust in local government’s zoning decisions dries up as well.
Hard, impervious surfaces that characterize development -- roads, parking lots, driveways and roofs – catch rainwater and send it into storm sewers that empty directly into streams. Water that would have seeped into the ground to recharge springs and aquifers that supply water during dry times instead flows downstream. Thus less water is available in the ground during a drought to supply wells and feed springs. A recent study by American Rivers, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Smart Growth America estimates that between 15 percent and 35 percent of developed land is impervious.
Another characteristic of growth has to do with changes in land values. As new residents build new homes, property values are likely to rise. (However, a locality that allows too much development can flood the market with parcels, holding prices down.) Rising property values will certainly be welcome news for many landowners planning to sell and move away. For others who do not want to move away, however, it will cause problems as real estate taxes increase. Rising real estate taxes are especially challenging in agricultural areas. There the high price of land with its attendant real estate tax may become prohibitive for farming. Young farmers cannot afford to buy farms and the finite resource of farmland gives way to suburban development. Farming for the next generation is becoming less and less attractive because of growing start-up and operating costs. According to the U.S. Census of Agriculture, in 1982 there were 11 farmers in Bedford County under the age of 25. In 1997 there were only four.
Although change is here to stay in Bedford County, citizens must ask their elected officials and themselves if it should come at the expense of what the community values. What is the right balance of development and preservation? Do citizens want to pay to provide community services to new subdivisions or to preserve Bedford’s rural character and tradition? What do you value about Bedford County? Send BCLP your list and we will post it on our web site and share it with readers in this column.
