And in looking back thirty years, this system has worked very well in Cattaraugus County. Since 1961, Cattaraugus County has continued to experience growth, slowly, but steadily. The rate of change and the development rate in Cattaraugus County are increasing. Local control over the land in Cattaraugus County is weakening in the face of change and increases in non-resident ownership. Local taxpayers are paying increasing costs, not only because of increases in social service mandates, but because of dispersal, sprawl, strip development, environmental problems, aging infrastructure and overextension of demands for urban services in scattered locations.
Local officials face increasingly complex problems.
Expensive experts and technology are becoming a necessity in the conduct of County business. A lesson has been learned repeatedly by other communities in New York State, that uncontrolled and uncoordinated development creates problems and is very costly. The uncontrolled dispersal pattern is undesirable. Everything has limits including the land base and its natural resources. Decisions about the use of the Cattaraugus County land base and its natural resources will have a permanent impact lasting well into the next century.