PDR NO’d

Washington County voters soundly reject farmland plan

April 4, 2007

Washington County voters may claim they support land preservation efforts but they refused to put their money where their wishes are, soundly defeating the purchase of development rights proposal Tuesday by just under a 2-1 margin.

The first binding referendum ever used by Washington County officials to resolve a contentious issue was rejected on a 16,672 to 9,662 vote. The results are complete but unofficial.

By percentage, the no vote received 63.3 percent of the ballots cast versus 36.7 percent in favor of the referendum resolution that would have created a county-run purchase of development rights (PDR) rural land preservation program using $800,000 of county money annually for 10 years.

It would have been the first county operated PDR program in the state.

Town of Mukwonago voters in Waukesha County Tuesday rejected a similar referendum by a similar margin that would have raised taxes by 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed value to fund a program to purchase development rights.

The final tally in Mukwonago was 1,372 votes, or 64.4 percent, against the measure, to 757, or 35.5 percent for it.

The measure would have seen the town raise between $400,000 and $500,000 annually to purchase development rights from property owners.

PDR proponents in Washington County often cited as one rationale for the program various surveys in which substantial majorities of residents said they wanted the county’s rural landscape to be preserved.

The Washington County Citizens for Farmland and Natural Areas, an advocacy group formed by the local Land Conservation Partnership campaigned hard for a yes vote, stating a PDR program would rescue the county’s $630 million agricultural industry from urban encroachment, preserve the rural character of the county, and provide open spaces to ensure that would protect the quality and quantity of local water resources.

Opponents campaigned on a simpler platform: That county tax money should not be used to purchase land development rights.

Campaigning for a no vote was the Wisconsin Homeowners Alliance, an advocacy group representing the interests of the Wisconsin Realtors Association and local Realtor boards.

Tuesday night, Joe Murray, government affairs director for the Wisconsin Realtors Association, said based on the margin of defeat, "my initial reaction was this (referendum) was going to lose whether we were there campaigning or not. ... The margin is just way too big.

He said taxpayers just did not want to see their money spent on such a program.

Campaign manager Sue Millin, project coordinator for the Land Conservation Partnership, was disappointed by the referendum’s defeat but saw some silver lining.

"Many more Washington Coun-ty citizens are now talking about land preservation and good land use planning. This is a start," she said.

"The opposition has clearly stated that the preservation of farmland in Washington County is very important. I ask them today, if not PDR as presented, then what? Clearly we need to do something soon. The Land Conser-vation Partnership and its diverse group of members will continue to work to find a solution to save Washington County’s valuable agricultural lands.

"This was the first bite of the apple at farmland preservation in Wisconsin at the county level and it clearly won’t be the last bite," Millin said. "I know that other counties have looked closely our efforts, but this should not be a discouraging signal, by any means. There is clearly a movement throughout the state to preserve farmland. And obviously the (state) secretary of agriculture has taken this issue on as being serious. Now it’s for other counties to step up to the plate and have these measures passed."

The referendum was the culmination of nearly two years of wrangling by County Board supervisors over creation of a county-run PDR program.

Following a detailed report compiled by a task force in 2005 that studied the concept and made recommendations on how it could be implemented locally, the County Board a year ago voted to start a program, then rescinded that vote two months later.

Late last year, the board then voted to send the proposal to the public in the first binding referendum ever used by county government.

 

This story appeared in the West Bend Daily News on April 4, 2007.