BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Three Lehigh Valley farms have been preserved as part of a $9.8 million statewide effort to ward off development and protect open spaces.
“Pennsylvania’s location — near ports, interstates, railways and 40% of the U.S. population — makes our state a great place to do business,” state Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said in a news release. “If your business is farming, that location brings fierce competition from developers willing to pay top dollar for your land.
“Keeping prime farmland from becoming warehouses, housing developments or parking lots is a critical investment the Shapiro Administration is making in partnership with farm families and county and local governments to feed our families, and our economy and our future.”
The farms, one in Lehigh County and two in Northampton County, were the latest to be included in the commonwealth’s Farmland Preservation Program, along with more than two dozen others across the state.
Through the program, farmers sell their development rights to the state’s State Land Preservation Board, protecting the land from any future residential or commercial development.
In Lehigh County, the Kyle L. Henninger and Beth A. Kramer Farm, a 19-acre crop farm in Weisenberg Township, was preserved.
More than 477 acres of high-quality land on the family’s farms will continue to be dedicated to feeding future generations of Pennsylvanians.State agriculture officials, in a news release
“Kyle Henninger and Beth Kramer’s Farm in Lehigh County’s Weisenberg Township is the seventh the family has preserved in an area where land is highly sought after for development,” officials said. “More than 477 acres of high-quality land on the family’s farms will continue to be dedicated to feeding future generations of Pennsylvanians.”
In Northampton County, farms included Kerrs Windy Hill Farm, a 10-acre beef farm in Washington Township, and the Barbara Rokas Farm, a 42-acre crop farm in Upper Mount Bethel Township.
The total investment was just more than $245,000 and $363,000, respectively, divided between state, county and township funds, according to the release.
Twenty-eight farms across the state were preserved in this latest round, totaling 2,629 acres in 19 counties
Since 1988, when the state’s Farmland Preservation Program was approved by voters, the commonwealth has protected 6,392 farms and 639,254 acres in 58 counties from future development, investing more than $1.7 billion in state, county, and local funds.
