Please help
protect
The population of Montgomery County is rapidly approaching one million. Several parts of the County are distinctly urban and there are many large tracts of suburban homes. Remarkably, the County has been able to preserve ~90,000 acres of farmland and open space in what is known as the Agricultural Reserve – also called the Ag Reserve or RDT (rural density transfer) zone. This critical land preservation was made possible by a planning decision made by the County Council in 1981 and which is documented in the County's Master Plan for the Preservation of Agriculture and Rural Open Space. This master plan was the result of much study and debate on how to protect a critical natural, economic, and cultural resource that stretches from Seneca Creek to Sugarloaf Mountain. As a result of the County's foresight in 1980 and continued vigilance over the years, the Agricultural Reserve has been called "the Country's most successful farmland preservation program."
Current issues facing the Ag Reserve include:
·Private Institutional Facilities
·Cuts in the budget for open space and farmland preservation
·Sand mounds and the extent to which they can be used
·Child lots
·Effective utilization of Transfer Development Rights (TDRs)
·Economic viability of farming
·Outer Beltway/Techway
·Development and industrialization pressures
The Sierra Club is a strong supporter of the Ag Reserve and has frequently voiced its beliefs to both the County Council and the Montgomery County Planning Board about threats to the viability of the Reserve. However, to accomplish this, we need your help. Please sign up to receive Sierra Club Alerts [http://maryland.sierraclub.org/action/] on environmental issues and then contact your elected and appointed officials about these issues.
Top Ten Benefits of the Agricultural Reserve
Royce Hanson's comments on the Ag Reserve
Ag Reserve Working Group
Other useful web-sites:
Celebrate Rural
Citizens to Preserve the Reserve: http://www.preservethereserve.org/
Sugarloaf Citizens' Association: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/sugarloafcitizens/index.html
Photo of Sugarloaf Mountain taken from the Montgomery County Agricultural Reserve.
This photo was taken by Lee Langstaff and is shown here with her permission. It cannot be reprinted without permission.