Agenda - Council - 02/26/1979 - Laserfiche WebLink

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! DRAFT Findings 1. RURAL AREA TASK FORCE Rural Centers Subcommittee July 20, 1978 Rural centers have traditionally performed a number of functions among which are: economic through employment and service provision; social control by means of a local government structure; social participation through the interaction of neighbor and friend; socialization or value transfer via family, church, school and society; and mutual support through reliance on neighbor and friend. Many of these previously informal functions have been formalized and are now performed by organizations (e.g., Red Cross, nursing homes, fire and police departments and social program centers). They are also frequently provided by sources other than the rural center itself (county, state or federal govern- ment). The economic function, however, has for many rural centers been severely diminished or eliminated. Rural centers first evolved in response to a primary economic need, that of service provision to the surrounding agricultural community. However, a number of factors have combined to diminish the dependence of the surrounding rural community on rural centers thus altering and endangering the rural center economic base. These factors include: Changes in agricultural technology. Agriculture has become more capital-, less labor-intensive and with more sophisticated service needs. As a result, there has been a significant shift from many small agricultural service providers scattered among the many rural centers to a few larger dealers and servicers in centralized locations. Farms have become larger and fewer in number. Consequently, the size of the farm population has declined, resulting in a reduced market for rural centers. At the same time, farm and rural popu- lations have increasingly looked to the central cities and suburbs for their needs. Land speculation and an urban-to-rural emigration have taken a great deal of commercial agricultural land out of production. While there is a prevailing view that rural land costs are lower, and rural living is more desirable (healthier, crime-free, fewer restrictions), new rural residents generally retain their urban orientation and look to the urban area for their employment, retail and other needs. Simultaneously, demands for local public services (fire, police, sewer, water, road maintenance, recreation facilities) that are provided and paid for by rural centers have increased, creating serious fiscal burdens and dilemmas for rural centers. Rural centers must confront the need to establish new or secure existing economic bases if they are to maintain themselves, much less grow. Many, if not most, rural centers find themselves confronting an uncertain future and a need to make well-considered decisions on their future growth and development. A few centers have ostensibly committed themselves to a course of action and require the means to assess and implement their decisions. RECOMMENDATION I: The future of rural centers rests with sound local planning and decision-making. Each rural center must establish an aggressive local planning process that addresses its problems and issues and establishes strategies for their solution. Rural centers vary in size, population and land use composition, market for their services, pressures and competition from other rural and freestanding growth centers and the urban area, local government administrative and fiscal capability, goals for the future~ and therefore in their problems and solutions. RECOMmeNDATION II: Each rural center plan must be based on an accurate assessment of the community's unique set of circumstances if it is to result in a workable strategy for future growth and development. Each local planning process must first establish at a minimum: