BIO
Libby Jones – a horse farm owner, wife of a former governor, and land preservation activist. Her horse farm has been in her family for seven generations – since 1790. She believes that this is some of the most productive soils in the world and that “the land does not belong to us; it belongs to the community, to the world...and we are the stewards of it and it is our obligation to care for it and to leave it better than we found it.”
ON COMMUNITY
"But you have to look at the community aspect. You have to put your plans and your ideas for your land in context of the entire community, because what one property owner does affects everyone around them and everyone in the whole community ultimately. And I think that’s one of the hardest issues that we deal with in land use planning – is to both respect the ideas and dreams of that property owner and yet plan our community so that they truly do represent the best interests of the people that live there."
"It is a widely held attitude that land is a commodity, to be bought and sold on the marketplace, and that its highest and best use should be whatever the market allows. If that’s building a Wal-Mart or building a racetrack for NASCAR, or whatever it is, that the land can be, that the owner of the land can be profited to the maximum amount, than that’s the fair thing to do with that land. But I think that’s a very very shortsighted attitude, because you have to look at the land as a finite resource and there’s not going to be any more of it made. And therefore, we are compelled to use it for its maximum value for future generations, and not just look at its maximum value for the current owner. By the same token, though, that owner does deserve to be able to receive their equity in their land."
ON CONFLICT
"I think there’s always a conflict when you have something very precious that is limited. It’s very finite, this land, and there are competing interests for the land, certainly. This is a very desirable place for people to live and work, which we would want it to be. It’s also the best farmland in the world, and so naturally, the agricultural economy here is vitally important to the entire state. So, those two interests collide in the middle with the need to grow and develop and people’s desire to build houses here, and the agricultural community’s desire and need to produce crops."
If you agree with Libby, explore 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
http://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
