Big Steps In Building: Survival, Not Suburbs
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.28.08
subdivisions growing on prime farmland just north of Toronto
Toronto architect Phil Carter bought a farm many years ago on the edge of Port Hope, Ontario. Today it is surrounded by shopping centers and subdivisions and the farmer who plants corn on it says "this land's just good for growing houses, now."
Except now, across the United States, we have thousands of houses empty or in foreclosure, worth a fraction of what they once were, while food is costing twice what it once did. More importantly, that farmland being paved over is close to cities and towns, making it far more valuable for local food. What kind of trade was this? Prime farmland for empty houses in unsustainable suburbs?
As Lester Brown noted in an earlier post, A fast-unfolding food shortage is engulfing the entire world, driving food prices to record highs. "The world has not experienced anything quite like this before. In the face of rising food prices and spreading hunger, the social order is beginning to break down in some countries. In several provinces in Thailand, for instance, rustlers steal rice by harvesting fields during the night. In response, Thai villagers with distant fields have taken to guarding ripe rice fields with loaded shotguns."
Big Step in Building: We are at the beginning of a major food crisis and can no longer afford to lose agricultural land close to our cities and towns. Let's use this time out in the construction industry to bring in rules that put food first and preserve agricultural land. They do this in Europe and Japan; they can do it in North America too. In those parts of the continent where the development industry is still paving over farmland, let's have an immediate moratorium on any construction on farmland: We are talking survival, not subdivisions.
More on the Food Crisis:
UK Chief Scientist: Food Crisis Will Bite Before Climate Change ...
Food Shortages Drive Global Prices to Record Highs :
Food Prices Dominate News: Now it's Pizza Time
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- David Suzuki and Bruce Mau Behind New Eco-Boutique in Toronto
- Tom Friedman Can't Make Up His Mind
- Oh Great...Less Rainforest, More Corn
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Yes Please! I'm tired of seeing commercial development on rich and workable soil.
Yes, and European agriculture is heavily subsidized. Americans have tended to value cheapness over quality or locally grown, though that has changes a bit.
We need to appraise lands for their best uses: some should remain in their natural state to support various species, some needs to assist with water flows and purification, much needs to be agricultural.
Ensuring that development happens in cities and established towns, on previously developed sites will help stem these losses of land.
The US population has migrated to large metropolitan areas within 100 miles of major water bodies, following WWII, just not into central cities. City centers have only just started to be repopulated, and many cities have only 1/3 of their peak populations. So there's still a great deal of room.
Most of the sprawl we've been seeing is happening on the rural periphery of these coastal cities. Agricultural lands tend to be flatter and already substantially cleared, with road access, so they are easier to subdivide and develop.
It's a shame that the only real money most small farmers can make is from selling their farms for development.
This is happing everywhere here in Orange & Ulster county NY.
I'm 46 and my mid-life crisis is building and running an organic farm to include produce and livestock.
Beatrix Potter had the means and the foresight to purchase working farms before the developers got to them -- and at her death bequeathed 4,000 acres to the land trust.
It's an example we should all take to heart right now. We just drove back from Baton Rouge to Dallas and there is so much acreage for sale - you can see farmlands being parcelled out and marketed as "Real living"....it's sickening.
If I had the means...even remotely...I would preserve these farms. Mostly because NOTHING tastes better than farm-fresh food. And I love food. ;-)
We really do need to foccus more on higher density transit-oriented development. Suburbs are a thermodynamic nightmare--they have a lot of room per resident, high surface area in relation to their interior room, and require a lot of transportation by car. A gas tax, good zoning, and a much greater emphasis on public transportation--and I'm talking about commuter/light rail, busses, etc, not some $30 billion high-speed rail deal. Considering most fuel and congestion in this country is used by cars--often cars that are used in commuting.
Yes! At least build these developments around schools ands shops so we can live there without driving except to go to work. Okay - we are losing land but at least build these areas so they are walkable. I can't walk out out of our neighborhood (or bike for that matter) without competiting with 50 mph cars and trucks without a road shoulder or sidewalk.
this phenomena is happening here in Mexico too at an alarming rate the only difference is that these developments planed for about 10000-80000 people are mostly for low income families .
But again the proplem is not these developments per se but the ever expanding and explosive population growth . Its just out of control!
I'm with Emily. We need to snap up and save all we can.
We managed to save a farm here from a 465 home development. It took a ton of work and signatures for the town board, but it was worth it. Others, even locally, have not been so fortunate. We managed to get the property on a Agricultural Preserve list, which here in NY (if you can get on it) permanently designates agricultural zoning. More of this needs to happen, especially north of the Mason-Dixon line, where water will be less of an issue in coming decades. Even as residential real estate tanks, I think viable farmland will become exponentially more valuable in the near future.
We will rue the day etc. etc.
I agree. Suburbs just need to die.
The future isn't set-up for suburban lifestyles we Americans take for granted, and they'll become wastelands in the future.
High food prices....how about blaming our idiot politicians and evironmentalists for using our food supply...corn...for fuel.....ethinol?!
High food prices....how about blaming our idiot politicians and evironmentalists for using our food supply...corn...for fuel.....ethinol?!
A similar problem here in Australia, but no empty houses. However, average household is only a little above 2 and less than 3 people, yet houses twice the size vs previous generation. We have less good farmland, most of it being where it is only viable with masses of fertiliser. Our main river system (the Murray) and heart of our foodbowl is close to collapse due to drought and irrigation extraction.
There is a trick you US'ers have worked out that we need to copy, and that is the use of Tradeable Development Rights. You designate appropriate areas in the towns and cities for higher density "smart design" walk-able mixed use vibrant development, but you don't give the valuable increased zoning away. The "rights" to use it have to be bought.
Those rights (TDR's) are created by giving them as compensation to farmers and others who will covenant against development and they can trade those rights with developers whenever they choose. Being backed by Government the Tradeable Development Rights are as good as the land for loan collateral so the farmer's financing is not disrupted. The farmer's asset splits into the land that will always be farm or forest and a tradeable security in the form of the development rights.
With his speculative value moved "off farm", the farm covenanted in perpetuity against development, one would expect a transformation over time to highly productive, sustainable best practice land husbandry and the "planting of oaks for the great great grandchildren".
Such a mechanism, to shift the development without financially penalising landowners is the key to actually enabling change of land use from current assumptions (which are always reflected in current values) to designs reflecting updated thinking and values.
I am impressed by what I find on the net about organisations like 1000 friends of Oregon (have a look yourself) and am starting to talk to people about building such an organisation here in the south west of Australia