BIO
Ann Richmond – co-owner of an historic family farm and an outspoken opponent of continued residential growth in Woodford County. She believes that land is something you “hold in trust for our children, it’s something we have to improve, that we feel like we need to protect and improve and pass on to them.”
ON GROWTH
"It’s kind of like if you have a really gorgeous patch of flowers in the woods and everybody wants to come and see it. You know, pretty soon they’re all standing on the flowers and there are no flowers anymore so nobody wants to come and see it anymore. I mean, that’s kind of like the attraction of the county."
ON RIGHTS
"To me, when people say they have the right to get the most money they possibly can for their land, even if it’s an inappropriate or not zoned use, to me that’s like me saying, well, I have all these tobacco barns and the price of tobacco is not very good this year, so I’m going to grow marijuana because that will bring me a whole lot of money and I have the right to make the most money from my farm I possibly can. Well, the laws says that’s not legal because we have determined that’s not in the best interest of the community, and that’s why I can’t grow marijuana on this farm. To me, that’s exactly this situation. It has been determined that it’ not in the best interest of the community for certain things to be done with land. Now you can’t have residential development in an agricultural area because it’s not in the best interest of the community, even if it’s in your best interest. Just like it might be to my best interest to grow marijuana, it is not in the best interest of the community, so you can’t do it, that’s why it’s illegal, and that’s a big difference."
ON ACTIVISM
"My position in the conflict is one of self-defense, because I see my own point of view and that of people that think like I do as resisting aggression against a lifestyle that we have earned, and feel that we would like to maintain."
ON DEVELOPERS
"They never sleep, the developers, they never sleep. They’re always chipping away like a little ant at a rubber tree plant, because it’s their income and they just, they’re at all the meetings. I have a job, a farm, and a five year old. And they know that, they count on it."
"I don’t fault them (the developers) for that (building). It’s like sharks have to eat, crocodiles have to eat. I don’t want them eating me, but it doesn’t make them bad sharks or crocodiles. These are not bad businessmen, they’re just, they need to be stopped."
If you agree with Ann Richmond, expore these links:
American Farmland Trust
www.farmland.org
Antidotes to Sprawl: Federal Contacts to Help Communities Promote Sustainable Land Use
www.epa.gov/region5/sprawl/index.html
Center of Excellence for Sustainable Communities
www.sustainable.doe.gov
Planners Web
www.plannersweb.com/sprawl/home.html
Sierra Club
www.sierraclub.org/sprawl
Smart Communities Network
www.sustainable.doe.gov/landuse/lusstoc.shtml
Sprawl Busters
www.sprawl-busters.com
Sprawl Watch Clearinghouse
www.sprawlwatch.org
Sustainable Development Institute
www.susdev.org
Urban Land Institute
www.uli.org
