What does Legacy say about rural character?

• Retain our distinctive community character and manage growth by protecting farmland and open space
• Preserve our rural landscape as an important part of the community’s quality of life
• Acknowledge and continue to encourage working farms’ viability to our local economy
• Retain farmland and open space by reducing pressure for development in rural areas by directing growth to the developed areas of the county and away from rural areas
• Limit public investment in the rural area including roads and sewer extensions to discourage new development and focus development where infrastructure already exists
• Acquire valuable rural open space and farmlands as special agricultural and cultural districts
• Use financing mechanisms to preserve farmlands and open space through the purchase of development rights programs (such as the Farmland Preservation Program), transfer of development rights programs, and/or the conservation activities of land trusts
• Prepare a master plan that includes an inventory of potential farmland preservation sites and develop guidelines to preserve and enhance the county’s rural areas
• Revise policies governing the use of economic incentives for business development so that these funds are not available for proposed developments in the rural area
• Limit the use of package treatment plants in the rural area
• Adopt guidelines that define the conditions under which land in the rural area will be rezoned to more intensive zoning districts and which will preserve the county’s rural areas