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OFBF's Neighbor Connections Tour Explores Rural/Urban Interface

by Lynn Snyder

Ohio Farm Bureau's Agricultural Ecology department was created with the acknowledgement that Ohio is becoming an increasingly urban state, which impacts farming.

The new department's first ever tour, NeighborConnections Tour was held July 8 to 11 to explore the reality of the rural/urban interface and how farmers and their nonfarming neighbors can co-exist.

OFBF Director of Community Alliances Marilyn Baker organized the tour. "The purpose of the tour was to offer Farm Bureau members the opportunity to learn more about the dynamics of land use change, the impact of urban sprawl and ways to address and mitigate conflict among neighbors. This tour was so successful because its many unique visits and speakers expanded agriculture’s traditional focus. Participants enjoyed the unusual opportunity to peer inside the issues of urban re-development and its implications for farmland preservation; explore producers’ creative solutions to development sprawl and; develop an awareness of how they, as individuals, can positively affect the outcome of community conflicts, she said.

At the onset of the tour, the opening speaker asked the twenty-four participants why they came on the tour. Responses included seeing land use changes in their communities, unplanned development, a desire for balance in their communities, urban sprawl, zoning issues, wanting to find common ground with their urban neighbors and a search for ideas for how to plan growth in their communities.

Jeff Sharp, Ohio State University professor of rural sociology and Elena Irwin, Ohio State professor in the Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics department discussed land use and population trends in Ohio. Of the state's 11 million residents, 3.8 million live in townships, compared to 2.7 million in 1960. Sharp said increases in population density can be found in areas surrounding Ohio's largest cities. Irwin told the group that urbanization tends to correlate with routes of transportation and vice versa.

For example, the largest increase in Medina County's population and the largest decrease in Cuyahoga County's population occurred in the 10-year period after the opening of I-71. Road building also spurs the growth of what Irwin termed "edge cities" as businesses move outward from the central city, providing employment opportunities and holding commute times down.

Irwin shared research about why people move away from cites. Quality of public services and schools, desire for larger homes and yards and "the rural ideal" – more open space, more privacy, better community, less taxes and less government topped the list.

Sharp offered the participants some insight for agricultural adaptation to urban sprawl. He said some areas of agriculture are adapting--the nursery and greenhouse sector has grown 80 percent in the last 10 years. In a study of northwest Licking County, there is widespread support and positive attitudes about agriculture among farmers and nonfarmers, Sharp said. The most important factor associated with goodwill of nonfarmers is knowing the surrounding farmers.

Former vice mayor of Dublin, Denise Franz King, led a tour of Dublin, which has grown from 600 residents in the early 1970s to more than 30,000 today.

Franz King said Dublin has adhered to a strict green space ordinance during its growth. Depending on residential population density, developers must set aside 10 to 25 percent of the property for green space preservation. The city also invests in historic building preservation and invests in public artworks to enhance residents' quality of life.

She emphasized that communities need commercial development, not just housing, to create a sufficient tax base for schools. Dublin businesses employ 60,000. Dublin, in Franklin County, also receives revenue from its 11 hotels.

One development problem the city encountered was stormwater sewage overflows into the Scioto River. The issue became very publicized and Dublin was required to put a moratorium on new building until the system was corrected.

Franz King said there have been no other incidents of overflow for more than five years.

"Community planning keeps everybody's investment in Dublin secure," she said.

Tom Price led the group on a tour of this unique composting facility and farm in Delaware County. Price recycles yard waste, manure, coffee grounds, newspapers and human food products. He said the operation is considered a Class 2 in Ohio EPA's eyes, meaning he faces more regulations than a Confined Animal Feeding Operation.

He receives $24 a ton to accept landscapers' yard waste from cities, townships and municipalities. Firms such as Nestle's, and soon Honda, will pay him to accept their discarded food items such as chocolate and caramel and cafeteria waste. Prices composts the yard waste into mulch and the food products into feed for his cattle and hogs. He also screens rocks out of soil and adds compost to it to sell as garden blend.

"I'm a believer in niche marketing and preselling before it's sold," he said. "People can get mulch other places for less than half of what it sells for here," he said. "Everything we do is helping livestock or people recycle," Price said.

He has incorporated good neighbor techniques such as tree plantings, flower beds and odor control. He and his family are members of the Scioto Valley River Federation, a group that protects the Scioto River. He has allowed the group to use the areas of his land that border the riverbank as a "Riverwalk." The area is for the enjoyment of those people Price said helped him and his family prevent a dam from being built in the river which would have flooded three or four of his farmsteads.