Issue Page

Agriculture and rural land

Protect farmers, ditches, rural roads, wells, soils, processing infrastructure, and working land from incompatible projects.

Where this shows up

Southern Chesapeake: farmland, drainage, rural roads, wells, buffers, data-center risk.
Grassfield: agricultural/open-space pressure and farmer incentives.
Great Bridge/Hickory edge: rural lifestyle, low density, ditches, toll/NC traffic.
Western Branch/Deep Creek: remaining working land and industrial separation.

What the city should do

Protect farms from incompatible industrial and data-center siting.
Fund OSAP and conservation tools that compete with development pressure.
Fix rural ditch and road systems.
Build processing, markets, and low-burden farm-business pathways.