Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Limitations Of Agricultural Land Useplanning Tools In Rural Wisconsin, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith, J. Bukovac

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Recent opinion polls suggest that farmland preservation is one of the most widely shared goals for local land use planning in Wisconsin. Although the state has long been a leader in the use of tax and zoning policy tools to protect agricultural lands from residential or commercial development, continued high rates of farmland loss have cast doubt on their effectiveness. This paper critically examines statistical evidence for the effectiveness of farmland tax credit and exclusive agricultural zoning policies in Wisconsin. Using data collected at the township level (the local unit of land use decision-making in most counties), and controlling for …