Posted by ppeery on October 26th, 2009
The Baldwin Center for Preservation Development hosted their inaugural symposium, Residential Development and the Working Landscape on October 15th and 16th at their new facilities located on Bundoran Farm. Over fifty participants with a variety of backgrounds, including farmers, developers, non-profit land conservation organizations, government officials, and leading academics came from across the country to gather at the Center and share their experiences, perspectives and expertise related to the preservation of our working agrarian landscapes. During the two-day session, participants discussed and analyzed how the private sector can foster rural land preservation with market driven solutions and limited residential development. In addition, the group explored how these solutions compare with, compliment and/or conflict with other preservation tools.
While delivering his opening remarks, Baldwin Center Board Member, Bob Baldwin, Jr. underscored the symposium’s intent when he said, “When it comes to the mixing of residential development and farms, historic exurban settlement patterns seem to have reflected either a collision of the two uses, resulting in an unhappy outcome, or containment of uses, a subtly hostile approach. We believe that if planned right, the uses could, at the least, peacefully coexist and very possibly coalesce into a mutually beneficial arrangement. The Symposium’s goal is to explore that hypothesis.”
During stimulating and lively discussions, the participants were challenged to interpret the value of farmland in new ways and assess the critical components and issues that emerge when integrating rural land preservation and residential growth. While it was widely acknowledged that very significant gains in farmland protection have been achieved throughout Virginia and the country, all agreed that more needed to be done and could be done, particularly in light of the strengthening Local Food Movement. The Baldwin Center was encouraged to take a leadership role in exploring and presenting rural development models that could benefit farmers, new residents, and rural communities as a whole. A highlight of the symposium occurred when Todd Haymore, Virginia’s Commissioner of the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services addressed the attendees and spoke about the importance of agriculture to Virginia’s economy and Governor Tim Kaine’s goals to foster the preservation and success of farms within the Commonwealth.
About the Baldwin Center
The Baldwin Center houses a non-profit foundation with the mission to showcase innovative practices in rural land use planning and development, agricultural preservation, and environmental stewardship. The facility is located at Bundoran Farm on Edge Valley Road and provides a gathering place for local and farm related concerns, educational workshops and field trips. The surrounding acreage will be dedicated to agricultural research, demonstrations, and living laboratories supporting preservation, education and outreach. The Baldwin Center is named for the founder of Qroe Farm Preservation Development and original partner of Bundoran Farm, the late Robert Baldwin, Sr.
About Bundoran Farm
Located just 15 minutes from Charlottesville and the renowned University of Virginia, the 2,300 acres of Bundoran Farm are nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Two ponds provide a place for quiet reflection or fishing, farm buildings and cottages dot the landscape, framing views that typify the slower pace and natural beauty of the Albemarle County lifestyle. This land remains intact today because of a legacy of family stewardship, a tradition of care that will continue for generations to come. Bundoran Farm is not just a place of rare visual beauty. It is a thriving landscape of cattle and orchards – a place where deer, fish and birds find
quiet refuge. A place where a network of over fifteen miles of walking and riding trails winds amongst mature Piedmont forest species. And where, most importantly, all of this will remain intact for future generations. In fact, 90 percent of Bundoran Farm will remain untouched by residential development thanks to the careful process of Preservation Development.
About Preservation Development
Bundoran Farm is the location of a new kind of rural community. At the heart of this community is a new economic, environmental and social way of life called Preservation Development. This innovative concept of land preservation, combined with extremely limited residential development, has been practiced and refined over thirty years. In the case of Bundoran Farm, these principles will result in a low-density community of approximately one hundred homesites, with the great majority of the farm’s acreage put under a proven system of easements and deed restrictions to ensure the beauty, character and vitality of this land in perpetuity. With the purchase of their individual homesites, owners enjoy the expansive acreage and beauty of the entire working farm and forest. They can experience the benefits of living on a large farm without the investment of time and management such a parcel would typically require.
Partial List of Symposium Participants and Speakers
Prof. Bruce Dotson
Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Academics
Senior Associate, Institute for Environmental Negotiation
University of Virginia School of Architecture
Charlottesville VA
Professor Dotson has written extensively on exurban growth patterns and land planning issues. He is consulting to the Baldwin Center for Preservation Development at Bundoran Farm.
Dr. Leah Matthews
GSK Faculty Fellow, Institute for Emerging Issues
Associate Professor, Department of Economics
Director, Farmland Values Project
The University of North Carolina, Asheville
Asheville, NC
Dr. Mathews’ research focuses on the valuation of those things that you can’t buy on supermarket shelves, like environmental quality and agricultural heritage, and the links between economics and policy.
Dr. Jill Clark
Director, Center for Farmland Policy Innovation
The Ohio State University
Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics.
The Center for Farmland Policy Innovation is designed to match local farmland protection goals with needed resources. Through these local-state partnerships, the Center provides model farmland protection strategies. Dr. Clark is also former Ohio Director of the American Farmland Trust.
Prof. Elizabeth Brabec
Chair, Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning
The University of Massachusetts
Prior to her teaching career, Prof. Brabec founded and managed the landscape planning firm, Land Ethics, Inc. Her research interests are focused on land conservation and the design and planning of sustainable open space, complemented with a strong interest in culture and the historical basis of landscape form.
Mr. Ed McMahon
Senior Resident Fellow
Charles Fraser Chair on Sustainable Development
Urban Land Institute
Washington, DC
Mr. McMahon is a nationally renowned authority and author on sustainable development, land conservation and urban design. Mr. McMahon previously served as director of The Conservation Fund’s “American Greenways Program” and as president of Scenic America, a national non-profit organization devoted to protecting America’s scenic landscapes.
Mr. Michael Heller
Manager, Clagett Farm
Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Upper Marlboro, MD
Mr. Heller has been managing CBF’s Clagett Farm, a 285-acre livestock/vegetable/CSA operation in Upper Marlboro, MD, for the last 20 years. He also assists CBF in evaluating agricultural/environmental policy opportunities and needs and serves on the Operations Committee for USDA’s National SARE Program (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education), the Board for Johns Hopkins Spira-Grace Project on Animal Agriculture, and the Board of Future Harvest – Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture.
Mr. Rex Linville
Land Conservation Officer
Piedmont Environmental Council
Charlottesville, VA
Mr. Linville is the Land Conservation Officer for Albemarle and Greene Counties in Virginia. Prior to joining the Piedmont Environmental Council, he worked at the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy in Maryland as the Land Protection Specialist for Talbot, Caroline and Dorchester Counties.
Mr. Joseph H. Maroon
Director
Virginia Dept. of Conservation and Recreation
Richmond, VA
Mr. Maroon has directed the DCR since 2002. His previous experience includes providing leadership for important private conservation and legislative organizations, including serving for more than 16 years as the Virginia executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
Mr. Dan Slone
McGuire Woods LLP
Richmond, VA
Mr. Slone is General Council to the Congress for New Urbanism and the U.S. Green Building Council. He also represents developers and communities in overcoming land use and environmental entitlement challenges.
Ms. Kate Collier
Feast! and The Local Food Hub
Charlottesville, VA 22903
Ms. Collier is a long-term supporter and advocate for small farms and local food producers in Central Virginia. Her innovative perspective on the food industry, life-long experience in marketing, food sales, and distribution has helped bring success and profitability to her business, Feast!.
Mr. Bill Kittrell
Director of Conservation Programs
The Nature Conservancy – Virginia Program
Charlottesville, VA
Prior to becoming director of conservation programs for the Virginia Chapter in 2002, Bill served for nearly 12 years as director of the Clinch Valley program in Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee. There, he managed the land protection, science, stewardship, fundraising, and community development programs. While working in the Clinch Valley, Bill directed the permanent conservation of over 10,000 acres of important habitat through more than 30 land deals. He also directed the creation of other incentive-based land conservation programs related to forestry and coal mining.
Mr. Brian Wheeler
Executive Director
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Charlottesville, VA
Mr. Wheeler initiated the formation of Charlottesville Tomorrow in February 2005 and he was hired as its first Executive Director in July of that year. Mr. Wheeler has lived in the Charlottesville-Albemarle region since 1984 and currently represents the community as an elected member of the Albemarle County School Board.
Mr. Bill Edgerton
President, The Oak Hill Fund
Charlottesville, VA
Prior to starting The Oak Hill Fund, Mr. Edgerton practiced as an architect in Charlottesville for over twenty years. His professional focus has always been on Sustainable Design. He has carried his passion for sustainable design into his work at The Oak Hill Fund. Additionally, he continues to be engaged in the Albemarle Community as a founding member of the County’s “ACE” (Acquired Conservation Easement) Committee, and as a member of the Albemarle County Planning Commission.
Mr. Tayloe Murphy
Former Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources
Former Member of the Virginia House of Delegates
Mr. Murphy has been a leading Virginia voice for environmental interests for decades, playing an instrumental role in the development of key legislation, regulations and policies. Throughout his tenure in the General Assembly, Delegate Murphy was noted for his commitment to environmental conservation and stewardship and protection of Virginia’s natural resources. He was an instrumental leader behind the General Assembly’s passage of both the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act and the Virginia Water Quality Improvement Act.
Professor Richard B. Peiser
Michael D. Spear Professor of Real Estate Development
Harvard Graduate School of Design
Cambridge, MA
Professor Peiser has taught numerous undergraduate, graduate and executive level real estate development, planning and finance courses to at Harvard since his appointment in 1998. Prior to Harvard, Professor Peiser directed the activities of the Lusk Center for Real Estate Development at the University of Southern California. His research interests include land development economics and the impacts of suburban sprawl.
Mr. Kevin Schmidt
Coordinator, Office of Farmland Preservation
Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
Richmond, VA
Mr. Schmidt was hired in January 2007 to serve as the first Coordinator for the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Office of Farmland Preservation. Among other duties, Schmidt is responsible for supporting the establishment and expansion of local Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) programs, overseeing and allocating state matching funds for these local programs, and reinvigorating the Virginia Farm Link program. Prior to 2007, Mr. Schmidt worked for more than nine years at American Farmland Trust, most recently as the Mid-Atlantic Regional Director
Professor Jonathan Cannon
Blaine T. Phillips Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law
Director, Environmental and Land Use Law Program
University of Virginia Law School
Professor Cannon joined the Law School faculty in 1998 from the Environmental Protection Agency, where he served as general counsel (1995-98) and assistant administrator for adinistration and resources management (1992-95). Prior to his work with the EPA, he was in the private practice of environmental law; served as an adjunct professor at Washington and Lee Law School, where he taught environmental law; and was a lecturer at the Law School. Professor Cannon has also served on the Albemarle County Planning Commission.
David Bearinger
Director, Grants and Public Programs
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities
Chesville, VA
The VFH goal is to assist individuals and communities in their efforts to understand the past, confront important issues in the present, and shape a promising future. From his position leading the grant programs at VFH, Mr. Bearinger has a unique perspective on the issues and challenges currently facing rural communities. Mr. Bearinger has also written on the need for a public conversation on the future of rural Virginia.
Filed under: Baldwin Center for Preservation, Education and Inspiration, Project Updates