Iowa's land is the richest in the world. Yet since 1986, we have been losing 26,000 acres of farmland each year to urban sprawl. Over half of all the land inside our cities is farmland. Eighty-eight percent of all new development is occurring outside city limits.
Numbers can turn things around.
We hope you join us as one of the first 1000 Founding Friends of 1000 Friends of Iowa. If you're as concerned as we are about what's happening to our farmland, natural areas, Main Streets, and urban cores, now is the time to do something about it. We have an historic opportunity to impact land use policy in Iowa and to reverse the trend toward more and more sprawl. This month, the Legislature resumes work on a comprehensive revision of our land use laws. In the mid 1970s, legislation championed by visionaries in both parties identified land use problems and proposed bold solutions.