Commission hears vision for farmland

Tom Vernon has a dream for the future of development and farming in Boone County.

“My ideal vision is a checkerboard, with areas that are developed, some that are farmed, some protected for their natural beauty,” Vernon said. He points to a 1995 survey of Boone County residents and to the findings of a Boone County vision project done in 2000 to prove that the community is behind him in his efforts to preserve the natural beauty and rural atmosphere of the county.

Vernon shared that message Tuesday afternoon during a work session with the Boone County Commission that he hopes will lead to a larger workshop on the topic.

A recent study sponsored by American Farmland Trust and others showed that the United States is losing about 1 million acres of farmland every year. Vernon said that in Boone County, “development persists, as it should, (but) I don’t see very much in the way of counterbalances for development.”

One of the ways he hopes to make his dream a reality is by holding a workshop through the American Farmland Trust that would deal with the complex issues of the purchase or transfer of development rights. Vernon said that in Missouri, development rights are separate from ordinary property rights in that they allow landowners to transfer or sell their right to build, subdivide or develop property. That kind of arrangement allows development to continue at a steady pace while protecting some properties’ rural character.

Vernon said he believes development rights might be especially attractive to younger farmers who plan to live on and farm their land for many years.

Vernon, a hobby farmer who owns a 20-acre vineyard, has spoken with many local organizations, including the Boone County Smart Growth Coalition, the Greenbelt Land Trust, the Boone County Planning and Zoning Commission and most recently the Boone County Commission. He’s been trying to gauge their interest in holding a workshop and to determine whether they would help make it happen.

Southern Commissioner Karen Miller said she was interested in bringing an American Farmland Trust workshop to Boone County. Northern Commissioner Skip Elkin said he is “intrigued” by the idea. Presiding Commissioner Keith Schnarre said he wants more detail on what the workshop would entail and suggested it might be a good idea to work with Columbia officials, who are about to embark on their own visioning project.

Vernon, however, isn’t so sure.

“If that connection is something that would help make people more enthusiastic, it might be a good thing, but if it just confuses people and makes the planning process more complicated, it might not be so good,” he said.

Overall, Vernon said he thinks the County Commission was receptive to his idea, and he plans to do more research on exactly what the workshop could accomplish.

The American Farmland Trust has informed Vernon that it would charge $2,500 to send its managing director of programs, Bob Wagner, to Boone County to conduct a workshop involving one to three presentations. Those events, the trust said in an e-mail to Vernon, would “provide (an) overview of the tools and techniques used to protect agricultural land as well as case studies that illustrate how programs have been used most effectively across the country.”

Vernon’s main goal for the workshop is to provide general education about the nature of development rights and the transfer or sale of those rights, which he says few people understand. He cited an example from two years ago when he went to a tax adviser to ask about selling development rights of property and was told he could not do it, even after he presented an IRS pamphlet that described the process in detail.

“You can’t take advantage of an offer if you don’t understand it,” Vernon said. So the main purpose of the workshop will be to simply “let people know what’s possible.”