In response to the story, “Sprawl worse than thought 13,000 acres eaten each year by county development:” As reported in this story, the Chester County commissioners are as surprised by this as the county’s planning commission and its open space committee. Those looking for where most land has been lost should head north, west or south in Chester County, where thousands of acres have been plowed under for new housing, business parks, and convenience stores.

Lost 43,000 acres? As reported in this story, the Chester County commissioners are as surprised by this as the county's planning commission and its open space committee. Those looking for where most land has been lost should head north, west or south in Chester County, where thousands of acres have been plowed under for new housing, business parks, and convenience stores.

Unfortunately, as Chester County’s population increases, so do our taxes. More people mean more crime therefore we need more police, public defenders, judges, the under construction $80 million courthouse, the under construction and expanding prison.

The heaviest tax of all? School-based property taxes. For every 100-acre farm lost to development, residents in that school district can count on a minimum annual increase of $50 in school property taxes as demonstrated in a 2003 tax impact study on residential land use vs. agricultural use prepared by Bob McRae of the county’s assessment office.

There’s only so much outright buying of open space and conservation easements can do to ease this tax burden. It is the big developers like Pulte, Toll Brothers, and their teams of lawyers driving land planning rather than the county or the townships. With the developers’ battle cry for property rights, they fill our fields with new housing. However, when the need for new schools to meet increased enrollment occurs, the developers are silent and it is the taxpayers who must pay.

Beyond saving open space, there are other ways the county can protect land and ultimately, taxpayers. The county open space interests must be represented on the sprawl-happy regional and state agencies and commissions. Rather than appoint placeholders to these boards, the county must ensure we have knowledgeable, open space advocates who are willing to invest the time and energy needed.

Voters have willingly voted to increase their taxes to protect the remaining open space through local, county, and state ballot referendums. While it's pretty clear what a large majority of voters want, we are saddled with a mess of confusing, contradictory and wasteful government policies. The Commonwealth has spent millions to revitalize old towns, boroughs and cities, while at the same time subsidizing bypasses and big-box stores that kill business districts on old main streets.

Farmers - businesspeople who wear overalls instead of suits - rarely are included in economic development initiatives. The fact that agriculture and tourism are the state’s leading industries is disregarded. Instead, millions of taxpayer dollars go to grants, loans and tax credits - and new highways, water and sewer infrastructure - so their fields can be turned into office parks and shopping centers. Pennsylvania’s consuming more farmland and natural space per added resident than any state but Wyoming.

Pennsylvania taxpayers shell out a steep price to attract industry – over $200 million annually, close to the most dollars per capita of any state on job creation and business expansion. The facts don’t lie about the state of Pennsylvania’s economy: 47th among the states on percentage of employment growth between 1992 and 2002, 40th on income growth during the 1990s, and 44th on new business starts in 2001.

Taxpayers deserve better.