News Article

Date: June 12, 2006
By DAVE RANK - Daily News Staff

Both sides of the PDR fence

Pro: Forever farmland provides sustainability

Wes Weinhold and his wife, Peg Cadigan, of the town of Farmington stand in front of their barn Saturday. The structure’s new roof was paid for with funds from a state purchase of development rights program.

TOWN OF FARMINGTON - While the rest of the county debates the value of starting a purchase of development rights (PDR) program to preserve rural land, two families in this township say they already know the answer.

They’ve sold development rights on their farmland to the state as part of the North Branch Milwaukee River Wildlife and Farming Heritage program, which was started in 2002 to preserve open, natural areas in the river’s watershed to maintain wildlife habitat, protect the area’s water resources and provide river recreation opportunities.

Both families, the Millers and Wes Weinhold with his wife, Peg Cadigan, are happy that they did.

"We love the idea it will always be this, it will always be farmland or revert back to nature. It will never be concrete and all that comes with development," said Peg Cadigan, who with her husband own 65 acres between the North Branch Milwaukee River and Fillmore Road. They voluntarily enrolled 56 riverside acres in the Department of Natural Resources PDR program last year.

Cadigan said the American Farmland Trust listed three prime agricultural areas in the country as being under the heaviest pressure from urban development. They are Southeastern Wisconsin, the Seattle area and the valleys east of Los Angeles.

Farmland is considered endangered in those areas, said Cardigan who moved to Wisconsin from Seattle 18 years ago.

"I have a daughter who happens to live east of L.A.," Cadigan said. "It’s funny that I have connections with all three areas."

Cadigan and Weinhold sell hay and occasionally free-range geese and garden crops, she said. Both are adjunct college faculty members, Weinhold, who is also an electrician, for Moraine Park and Lakeshore technical colleges, Cadigan for National-Louis University in Milwaukee, a post-graduate teachers education college.

Dave and Sandra Miller live in the far northeast corner of Ozaukee County on a 250-acre dairy farm that spreads out into both Washington and Sheboygan counties. "I own land in three counties but I pay taxes in four townships," Dave Miller said with a chuckle.

In 2004, Miller voluntarily enrolled 110 river-related acres in the DNR’s PDR program.

"A primary goal," he said, "I would like to see this farm stay primarily agriculture as long as possible."

Funding for the DNR program comes from the state’s stewardship fund and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

While neither farm family received what they considered the full difference between the price of their agricultural land and what it could be sold for to a developer, both said that doesn’t matter.

"We don’t feel economic value should be considered over its real value," Cadigan said.

She said real estate agents kept calling her and her husband to warn about the money they would lose by enrolling in PDR. But, she said, they are wrong.

"Its real value is its beauty, its ability to sustain life. And by life I mean its ability to sustain wildlife as well as grow food."

Dave Miller has a few more pragmatic reasons why he enrolled in the PDR program. "I still have full ownership of this land. I had a number of reasons why I enrolled: I could use the money to pay down my debt without selling land to do it. I still have the land to develop my business. And it eliminates urbanization."

Cadigan said the sale of developments rights, about half of what those rights really were worth, has given her and her husband peace of mind.

"Between us, we have seven jobs, and we do volunteer work," she said. "In the back of our minds, we always thought we might be forced to sell land in an emergency, say if one of us got sick, and we’d hate to see this land developed."

Con: Too late, too costly and run by government

Dennis Schauer of Hartford stands on his land at his home Sunday. He is opposed to a county purchase of development rights program.

TOWN OF HARTFORD - Farmers who do not favor the county starting a purchase of development rights (PDR) program to help preserve prime agricultural land, generally center their opposition on three comments:

- Where do they think they’ll get the money for this? Land is expensive.

- Too little, too late. This should have been done 20 years ago. Farming is dying as an industry in Washington County.

- Just another wasteful government program that only a handful of farmers will take advantage of. And, besides, there has never been a government land program that ever worked like it was supposed to, so why would this one be any different?

Dennis Schauer and his family run a 350-acre farm in the town of Hartford. He didn’t like it when the town considered creating its own PDR program, twice defeated in advisory referendums in 1998 and 2004, and he doesn’t like the county proposal either.

"I just think it’s just another government tax program to try and keep the farmer on the land," he said. "It would be better if the farmer would be paid a decent price for his product, then he could afford to keep farming."

"The idea up front always seems good, but when it goes through the government system you don’t know what will come out," said Oliver Vogel, a retired farmer now living in West Bend.

Vogel is concerned that the farmer could end up losing money or his land under a PDR program. "There should be a protection clause in there for the farmer."

Leo Dornacker actually is in favor of starting a PDR program, but he does have a few questions about it that bother him.

"The worst part of it is where is all this money going to come from? It’s going to take a lot of money to buy this land."

Dornacker owns 80 acres in the town of West Bend.

"To me you’re kind of buying a pig in a poke," said Ellis Kahn, who owns Stone Creek Farm Inc. in the town of Kewaskum. "It’s tax the many to support a few. Those people who want this program, let them buy the land and donate it to the county.

"I think those tax dollars would be better spent on ways to increase farm income, so that a young person can make a decent living by farming.

"The idea is good, but I think (PDR) is just a bad deal," Kahn said.

Another former farmer, who declined to identify himself, is no fan of government programs in general.

"The government has never run a land program that ever worked," he said.

Government programs just encourage people not to work, Kahn said. "The whole idea of government is give, give, give.

"Where do they think they’re going to get all this money from?" Schauer said. Land in this county now sells for between $10,000 and $35,000 an acre, he said. "Sure, It’s nice to keep open areas, but I think it’s too late. This should have been done 20 years ago."

"This should have started 10, 20 years ago," Dornacker said. "Now you have all these subdivision in between (farms)."

"Where will the young farmers come from to farm this land?" Kahn asked. "In our area, maybe six men under the age of 35 are farming."

Schauer also feels PDR would just add another layer of government interference for a farmer in the program.

"What if a farmer wanted to retire? It’s just one more hoop to go through," Schauer said.

Next step

What: County Board vote on PDR

When: 9 a.m. Tuesday

Where: Washington County Courthouse, Government Center, 432 E. Washington St., West Bend, room 1019, on the lower level.