Are land use decisions aimed at creating businesses actually stopping them?
If you read a recent article in the Hillsboro Argus you may be asking yourself that question. A dairy near West Union and Helvetia wants to build a creamery to produce local milk for the region. However, due to the City of Hillsboro’s aspiration for urban growth and its attempts to get the areas around the dairy labeled urban reserves, the owners are having second thoughts.
For most businesses, it takes time to see a significant return on your investment. A creamery is no different. However, if the land that now surrounds the dairy is reserved for urban development, the long term viability and success of the new creamery could be brought into question. The article goes deeper into this point as well as the City's response.
It seems to me that we should be making growth and policy decisions that yes, bring in new employers, but also encourage the creation of businesses like a local creamery. Our elected officials should be asking questions about the future and helping plan for the people that will be here in 30 to 50 years. And they are.
But shouldn't they also be standing up for the people who are already making a living here and who, in expanding their business will be contributing to the growth of the area? Maybe we should be asking what value these ventures will bring to the region today and 50 years from now. I would think that milk that is locally sourced is something we would want to protect, not hinder.
For more information here is the full article. And check out the folks at savehelvetia.org. They have been working hard to protect regional farm and forest land.
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Comments
Urban planning is beginning to take food security into consideration throughout the country. A popular movement at present is the move for local communities to include provisions for "urban agriculture." Our small town of Lincoln City is among those that passed such an ordinance, just this year, which includes activities like market-gardens and backyard poultry. These are just small steps by city-dwellers that can improve food security.
Planners of larger cities like Hillsboro that are surrounded by productive farmland should take this a step further and consider those areas where considerations of job- or housing growth collide with the need for regional food security. This example of a locally owned and operated creamery, supplied with milk from local farms, is one that brings these choices into focus. Is it better to provide for development of more subdivisions or job-intensive commercial use, or to conserve the historic use in agriculture and support the community with better access to healthy food? Once farmland is lost, it is rarely if ever reclaimed.