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Saw an interesting article today in the real estate section of our Sunday paper. Battle of Farmer vs. Suburbanites Leads to a Big Stink By ANNE BERRYMAN Published: June 20, 2004 ATKINSVILLE, Ga. THE struggle between suburbanites who want to retain their bucolic views and developers who want to put houses on farmland is playing out here in a rather surprising, and smelly, way. Last month, Bob Cain, a developer, was denied permission to rezone his 34 acres of agricultural land and build 43 town houses, 51 detached single-family homes and two commercial office buildings, each about 3,500 square feet. Just days after the Oconee County Board of Commissioners rejected the request, a strong odor began wafting from tons of poultry manure freshly dumped on Mr. Cain's property. His grassy, rolling land fronting a winding two-lane road is next to Northwood Woods, a subdivision of 225 houses. Residents there had strongly opposed the development, fearing heavier traffic, decreased home values and increased burdens on the schools. It apparently never occurred to them to fear manure. "It took your breath," said Pam Bridges, 39, who lives with her husband, Ben, 38, and their son, Broc, 11, in a two-story house next to Mr. Cain's property. It lingered for days, growing stronger and forcing members of a nearby church to retreat indoors for a cookout and tent revival. Neighbors normally seen walking, biking and jogging past the subdivision's houses, set on lushly landscaped one-acre lots, mostly stayed indoors. Then came the flies "layering everything in black," said Mrs. Bridges, whose legs weeks later still reveal the purple splotches of fly bites. The flies covered the porch swing. They cloaked her son's bike and football. Their dog begged to come inside. But the stench of the moment wasn't their only concern. At about the same time, a bright blue, quarter-page ad appeared in The Oconee Enterprise saying: "Attention! Looking for qualified HOG FARMER to lease 34 ACRES on Hog Mountain Road FOR $1 PER ACRE . . . Contact Bob Cain." Conflicts among farmers, developers and suburbanites play out frequently across the country. According to the American Farmland Trust, a conservation group, about 1.2 million acres of farmland are disappearing each year and being replaced by metropolitan sprawl. The struggles are particularly acute in fast-growing states like Georgia, and in counties like Oconee, which is 70 miles east of Atlanta. Each year, about 400 houses are built in the county, and farmland values jump 25 percent. The dispute here is hardly over. Mrs. Bridges and others claimed the manure and the ad were placed to spite opponents to the rezoning, but Mr. Cain told The Oconee Enterprise, "I'm fertilizing because I intend to cut hay here." Meanwhile, he has filed a lawsuit, calling the existing zoning "arbitrary and capricious" and requesting that commissioners be ordered to reconsider his application. He declined to comment on his plans, and referred calls to his lawyer, G. Douglas Dillard of Atlanta, who said his client has a right to use his land as zoned. "All the evidence supports the rezoning," Mr. Dillard said. Mr. Cain's situation is common, he said, because there is no consensus on how to deal with development. "We talk about sprawl and the loss of farmland and open space, yet at the same time we want acre-size lots," he said. In a response filed last week, the county denied the allegations in Mr. Cain's lawsuit. The stink has dissipated, but it mobilized Northwest Woods to reorganize its neighborhood association and led to the creation of another, larger alliance of residents intent on supporting controlled growth. Some people worry that the incident of the poultry manure spread could incite conflict between farmers and suburban residents. Russ Page, 59, who owns a cattle-breeding business, said he fears that farmers will be hampered in their work to pacify the new residents. "Don't puni***he farmers," he said at a county commission hearing. Federal, state and local officials have struggled with ways to preserve farmland in Georgia. Just five miles south of the Cain property, Allen Powers and Ann Breedlove Powers's farm recently became one of eight in Georgia preserved in a conservation easement partly financed by the Department of Agriculture's Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program. Georgia, with the nation's third-largest loss of farmland, has no preservation program of its own. Under the preservation plan, the Powers family sold off development rights for about $470,000 and kept the right to work the 63-acre farm, which has been in their family for four generations. Meanwhile, G. Melvin Davis, chairman of the Oconee County Board of Commissioners, said he could not be specific about the reasons for rejecting Mr. Cain's rezoning request because it is in litigation, although he did say the commission "didn't feel like it was in the best interest of the public." But he does not see rezoning requests, nor controversies, diminishing. "Who likes change?" he asked. "A wet baby. That's the only person who likes change."
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