Susan Whitney/The Star
Joanne Flynn, a board member of the Black Swamp Creek Land Conservation Group, gets garlic ready Monday for planting at the Flynn family farm in Brandywine.
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Twenty years is a long time to wait. That's how long Joanne Flynn, the owner of a small farm in Brandywine, says she's been working her land, worrying about the state of farms in Prince George's County and watching other farms close under the weight of market forces.
Four hours can also feel like a long time, said Flynn. That's how long she sat in the County Council's chambers Nov. 18, listening to more than 50 people testify against a proposed bill she says would have saved the county's farms.
The proposed Transfer of Development Rights program, which would have required developers to buy farmland preservation credits in rural parts of the county in exchange for being allowed to build with greater density in other areas, was tabled indefinitely after developers and their supporters turned out to argue that it would hamper growth in the area.
"I've known farmers over the last two years who couldn't wait for the program, had to sell," said Flynn, a member of the Black Swamp Creek Land Conservation Group and a supporter of the TDR program, as she peeled organic garlic in front of her 80-year-old farmhouse.
"Sometimes that's the only option, to sell," she added.
Councilman Thomas E. Dernoga (D-Dist. 1) of Laurel, who sponsored the bill, said it is too early to comment on whether he will propose the TDR program, or a similar program, again in the future.
"It's just too early to see what makes sense at the moment," said Dernoga, who had been pushing the program for years. "We're going to continue to talk about it."
He said he will discuss the future of the bill with Councilwoman Marilynn Bland (D-Dist. 9) of Clinton, who co-sponsored the bill, at the end of this year or the beginning of 2009. Bland did not respond to calls for comment.
Under the program, farmers would have been allowed to sell development rights to their land to private companies under the condition that they not allow that land to be developed. In exchange, developers would be able to build with greater density closer to the Capital Beltway.
Dernoga estimated that the TDR program, combined with other county land preservation programs, would have saved up to 30,000 acres of county farmland. Charles, Montgomery, St. Mary's and Baltimore counties all have similar programs.
Robert "Yates" Clagett, an official with the Prince George's County Soil Conservation District who helped craft the program, said he thinks the bill's supporters will need to revise the bill if they want to pass it in the future.
Clagett said future legislation to create a TDR program will need to consider opponents' concerns that the tabled bill is too complicated and that mandatory enrollment for developers would hurt growth in rural parts of the county.
"We've got to simplify the bill so everyone can understand it, and we need to find a way to make it voluntary," he said.
The bill's odds of passing were hurt by the four hours of mostly negative comments during the hearing, Dernoga said.
"You had several commissioners on the fence who were waiting to hear the testimony," Dernoga said. "It was such a barrage of negativity."
Supporters' turnout at the hearing might have also been dampened by skepticism on the part of some local farmers, who said they do not trust the program or that they do not want the county government to have control over their land.
"Generally I'm in favor of the concept [of TDRs], but I'm not in favor of the government being involved," said Alvin Turner, an Upper Marlboro farmer. "The concept of TDRs was not something that evolved from people in the rural tier. This is a pet project of Councilman Dernoga, who is from Laurel."
The number of farms in Prince George's County has declined in recent years, from 526 in 1997 to 452 in 2002, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The bill's supporters say the TDR program is needed to keep the county's farms in operation.
But Flynn, who bought her farm after moving from the suburbs, said farms need to be protected for less practical reasons.
"I love the connection with the earth," she said. "I think a lot of people lose that connection… I just like to live in a self-sustainable way, the way life should be."
