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<br />space uses. As of 1997, Berks County had 221,511 acres in farmland, 187,645 acres in crop
<br />production, and 1,586 farms yielding total farm sales of almost $248 million. It ranked third in
<br />Pennsylvania in number of farms, cash receipts from agriculture products, layers, swine, corn
<br />grain, soybeans, and apples. It ranked fourth statewide in dairy, broilers, cattle and calves,
<br />peaches, nursery and greenhouse crops (includes mushrooms), and barley. Animal agriculture is
<br />significant to Berks County's agriculture. Fifty -two percent of the market value of agricultural
<br />products sold is livestock. In addition 35% of the market value is nursery and greenhouse,
<br />including mushrooms. Mushrooms are the largest market value crop grown (US Census of
<br />Agriculture 1997).
<br />More recent growth patterns reflect suburban sprawl outward from Reading as well as
<br />development in rural land beyond suburban areas, leading to increasing conflicts between rural
<br />residents and agriculture production over issues, such as odor, flies, chemical use, and farm
<br />traffic. To reduce rural urban conflict and increase the viability of the county's agricultural
<br />industry, Berks County has developed a suite of land use management tools to encourage
<br />landowners and municipalities to protect farming and related industries.
<br />The "Purchase of Agriculture Conservation Easements" and development of "Effective
<br />Agriculture Preservation Zoning" are the two approaches which are viewed as providing the
<br />agriculture resource base needed for future production. In its 1991 county comprehensive plan,
<br />the county set the goal of preserving 200,000 acres of farmland through these two programs.
<br />Specifically, the county desired to preserve large contiguous areas (minimum of 500 acres) with
<br />existing agricultural productivity. In addition, the Planning Commission initiated an Agricultural
<br />Zoning Incentive Program in 1997 to encourage municipal adoption of effective agricultural
<br />zoning (Myers and Auchenbach 2002).
<br />IV. Data and Methods
<br />The implicit house price function was estimated using 8,090 residential properties that were sold
<br />between 1998 and 2002. To focus on the rural/urban fringe, houses located in the City of
<br />Reading and New Morgan Borough were excluded from the analysis. Data on house sales and
<br />characteristics were obtained from a county -wide parcel map maintained by the Berks County
<br />Office of Assessment. For each house in the analysis, information vas collected on the sale
<br />price of the house, the size of the house, the lot size, the number of bedrooms, the number of
<br />bathrooms, whether the house has a basement, whether some of the finished area in the house is
<br />located in an attic, the exterior facade of the house, whether the house has central air
<br />conditioning, the physical condition of the house, the year of construction, the year sold, and
<br />whether the house had public water and/or public sewer. Nominal sale prices were inflated to
<br />2002 dollars.
<br />A county -wide land use map was constructed based on the parcel map. Categories of land use
<br />were open space, residential, commercial, and industrial. For each house included in the
<br />analysis, the amounts of land in each land use within 400 meters of the house and within 1600
<br />meters of the house were measured. Within the category of residential use five subcategories
<br />were defined, small -lot single family (less than 0.2 acres), medium -lot single family (0.2 to 0.5
<br />acres), large -lot single family (0.5 to 1.5 acres) and very large -lot single family (over 1.5 acres).
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