Accounting for the Social Benefits and Costs of Development Rights Purchase Programs

Abstract

Public programs of agricultural preservation continue to be of interest in many states of the urbanized Northeast. Farmers themselves, of course, have always been concerned with this issue, and in recent years they have found effective allies among public planners, for whom the agricultural sector has become a chief source of scenic and cultural amenities as well as insurance against unforeseen disruptions in future supplies of food and fiber. Programs of use-value assessment have been enacted by almost all of the northeastern states, as well as by those in many other parts of the country. Partly as a result of the fact that the effectiveness of this approach has been in doubt, attention in some states is turning to programs in which the development rights are purchased from agricultural land in order to alleviate development pressure on these areas. New Jersey has recently undertaken a program of development rights purchase, Massachusetts is currently shaping legislation for such a program, and many other states have shown interest.