Star Tribune Fri, 28 Mar 2008 04:56:37 GMT
Farm advocates crowd public hearing in plea to save land
Scott County debate about growth draws overflow crowd. ... The plan envisions Scott County, until recently a thinly populated rural outpost, becoming a major population center during this century, with as many as a half-million residents at full build-out. That's about four times as many people as live there today. It permits much of the eastern side of the county to remain the sort of "10 acres and a horse" area that it has become. But it seeks to block that from happening in most of the west, while envisioning that most of that area would convert from farms to subdivisions. It does set aside a portion of the southernmost part of the county as permanent farm country -- all of Blakeley and Belle Plaine townships, and portions of two others, Sand Creek and Helena. But it assumes a deal under which the Metropolitan Council builds a big new sewer plant south of Shakopee, in return for the county setting aside a vast area for eventual suburbanization. But a procession of speakers Thursday night asked planners to reconsider. "In three days I found 349 people willing to sign a petition to save farmland in Scott County," Mark Jensen, Jennifer's husband, told the county's planning advisory group. "Five declined. Please take that under advisement." Ann Houghton, who farms in the southern portion of the county, pointed to surveys showing what people in Scott County want. "The vast majority of the public wants a rural atmosphere and small-town lifestyle," she said. "We need to take more proactive steps to maintain that. But instead we see preservation of farmland labeled as a 'strategic challenge,' rather than a goal."
[[keywords: LandUse;Living;Metro;]]
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