When their rental land was paved, the dairy farm had to shut down. In September, the Washtenaw County Farm Bureau endorsed Proposal 1, beating back the efforts of some anti-tax farmers to oppose the initiative. The majority of farmers decided that the benefits to the agricultural industry and farmers' livelihoods outweighed any anti-government sentiments. The Michigan Farm Bureau also supports the county proposal, and a group of local farmers, including Horning and others, are independently campaigning to pass the initiative, calling themselves Farmers for Farmland Preservation. This sprawling pattern has also been shown to increase automobile dependence, create more congestion and pollution, detract from the urban economy, destroy natural habitat for wildlife, and reduce people's sense of community.
Sprawl also wreaks havoc on an area's water quality.
In Washtenaw County, a little more development will sink some creeksheds into despair. Repeated studies have shown that property values in areas near open space or recreational opportunities are higher than where those options are lacking. Open space and undeveloped land provide many free services to society such as natural hazard mitigation, air and water pollution abatement, and groundwater storage. Losing or degrading these natural capacities means they will have to be replaced or augmented by costlier technology. Finally, urban sprawl undermines the prosperity of older urban areas.