Reclaiming our natural resources . . . ensuring cleaner air and water . . . increasing land values and quality of life . . . Iowa's
win-win strategies for its children and grandchildren

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to the body and soul.  -- John Muir

The conservation of natural resources is the fundamental problem. Unless we solve that problem it will avail us little to solve all others. -- Teddy Roosevelt
 
 
 

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What is a Greenbelt?
Why a Greenbelt?
Greenbelt History
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About Us
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Frequently Asked Questions

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What is a Greenbelt?
A greenbelt is a ring of open land that encircles an urban area.  Its fundamental contribution is the preservation of the environment, through protecting soil, water, trees and wildlife.  The environmental protection greenbelts offer is essential to preserving our state and its quality of life.  Greenbelts’ byproducts include recreation uses for the public such as hiking and biking trails, golf courses, and parks, or for other purposes like hunting and fishing.  Greenbelts contain both public and private land otherwise protected, including land devoted to farming.  Greenbelts enhance land values and make communities more livable.  They contribute to economic development by making the state a more attractive place in which to live, work, and play, and accordingly increase the value of real estate.
 

Why a Greenbelt?
The state of Iowa is filled with stunning open spaces and valuable natural resources.  Despite its rolling hills, golden cornfields, rich soil and lush prairie grass, Iowa ranks 47th in numbers of publicly owned conservation acres and ranks 49th in spending on state parks and protection of public conservation lands (see http://www4.legis.state.ia.us/lfb/docs/BudgAnalysis/FY2007/LAGAR/dnr/543_ANR_001.pdf).  If Iowans want to keep their open spaces, parks, forests, and fields, we need to be innovative in our conservation approaches.  Greenbelts have successfully preserved acres and acres of open space and natural resources throughout the United States and the rest of the world.

Over the last 70 years, cities in the United States and around the world have successfully preserved large amounts of land by creating greenbelts.  Greenbelts provide protection from erosion, development, protect natural resources and preserve open space for parks, recreational and agricultural uses.  Greenbelt efforts have increased the quality of life and the natural environment in these communities by limiting development and the increased pollution and land degradation that comes from urban sprawl.
 

Greenbelt History
One of the first known greenbelts was planned in Adelaide, Australia in 1837.  There, a greenbelt known as the Adelaide Parklands surrounds the city’s central business district.  In the 1860s, Dundin, New Zealand created a greenbelt to push back against the city’s rapid expansion.

Greenbelts took hold in the UK in the 1940s-70s.  The idea was introduced in 1934 by Herbert Morrison, a member of the London Country Council, and expanded on by Patrick Abercrombie in his Greater London Plan in 1944.  After pressure from environmental, academic, and rural preservation groups, especially the Campaign to Protect Rural England, the UK government established 14 greenbelts around cities in England and Whales, including London, Greater Manchester, Oxford, Cambridge and York.  Greenbelt space doubled in England between 1979 and 1993.  To date, greenbelts cover 3.8 million acres in England—roughly 12% of English land.   JOHN G. FRANCIS & LESLIE FRANCIS, LAND WARS: THE POLITICS OF PROPERTY AND COMMUNITY (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003).  Greenbelts also surround cities in Canada, Sweden and the Philippines.

In the United States, greenbelt policies are often presented as ballot initiatives, where voters consider whether state or local government can zone an area of land to restrict development and create a greenbelt.  Environmental and anti-sprawl groups and farmers generally support greenbelts while developers typically oppose them.  Realtors often support establishing greenbelts since property values increase when they border green spaces.  Some housing advocates feel that enclosing an urban space within a greenbelt could limit housing options and therefore increase rent costs, hurting low-income renters.  Other opponents argue that greenbelts stifle competition by limiting growth boundaries.

List of U.S. cities with greenbelts:
• Oak Ridge, TN
• Juneau, AK

Greenbelt Supporters
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? Another person
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Affiliated Organizations

Advisory Committee
Members’ names

About Us

The Iowa City Greenbelt Project is currently in the preliminary planning and brainstorming stages.  A group of volunteers from eastern Iowa is working to build a coalition of individuals, organizations, and community leaders who support this innovative land conservation method.
 

Take Action
 What you can do . . .
  Attend a community meeting:  date, location, etc.
  Subscribe to email newsletter
  Send a letter to the editor
  Contribute to the Iowa City Greenbelt Project
Sign up as a Supporter
 <insert interface to collect:>
  Name
  Email
  Phone
  Address
  Yes!  You can use my name as a Greenbelt supporter!
 

Links

General information on greenbelts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_belt_%28UK%29, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_belt,
Oak Ridge, TN greenbelt: http://tcwp.org/ORBarrens.pdf
City of Norman, OK Greenbelt Commission: http://www.ci.norman.ok.us/planning/greenbelt/pdf_files/051005GBPCYear1Report.pdf
The Greater Worcester Land Trust: Citizens’ Greenways Guide: http://www.mass.gov/dcr/stewardship/greenway/docs/CG%20CHAP1.doc
Map of England/Whales greenbelts: http://www.magic.gov.uk/staticmaps/maps/gn_belt_col.pdf
Campaign to Protect Rural England: http://www.cpre.org.uk/home
Greenbelt Alliance: www.greenbelt.org
Greenbelt Land Trust Standards: http://greenbelt.missouri.org/standards.html
Canadian “Greenbelt Plan”: http://www.mah.gov.on.ca/Page189.aspx
Ontario Greenbelt Alliance: www.greenbelt.ca

Conservation in the Media:
Des Moines Register’s Editorial (Jan. 25, 2008): Cheers to groups preserving Iowa's treasure: its land
“Iowa was blessed with two enormously valuable assets, the richest soil on the planet and a climate ideally suited for growing crops. Iowa's agricultural bounty has fed millions and made Iowa a powerful force in the global marketplace. It also meant much of Iowa was converted from prairie and woodlands to farms. Now that those farms are also producing raw materials for energy, the pressure is greater than ever to put every available acre of land into production.”
 
Frequently Asked Questions

What is a greenbelt?
Why is a greenbelt a good idea?
Who supports greenbelts?
How can a community create a greenbelt?
How do Iowa laws support preserving land through a greenbelt?
What concerns do greenbelts raise and how can those concerns be best addressed?
What other legal issues do greenbelt efforts encounter?
What can I do to help create a greenbelt around Iowa City?
 
 

What is a greenbelt?

A greenbelt is a ring of open, undeveloped land that encircles an urban area.  Once a greenbelt is established, the space is available in many cases to the public for recreation uses, such as hiking or biking trails, golf, and parks, or for other purposes like hunting, farming, or wildlife preservation.

Why is a greenbelt a good idea?

Over the last 70 years, cities in the United States and around the world have successfully preserved large amounts of land by creating greenbelts.  Greenbelts provide protection from erosion, development, protect natural resources and preserve open space for parks, recreational and agricultural uses.  Greenbelt efforts have increased the quality of life and the natural environment in these communities by limiting development and the increased pollution and land degradation that comes from urban sprawl.

Who supports greenbelts?

Greenbelt efforts have garnered wide appeal.  Many people from diverse backgrounds support this innovative way of preserving dwindling natural resources.  Land conservationists and environmentalists are often the main proponents of greenbelts, but greenbelts have the support of diverse community groups and individuals.  Hunters often push for hunting and fishing rights on land within a greenbelt.  Sports enthusiasts support designating land in a greenbelt for various purposes like golf, disc golf, and biking and hiking trails.  Farmers benefit from preserving their land from encroaching development and urban sprawl.  Under some greenbelt conservation programs, the government will offer tax incentives to farmers who maintain their land for agricultural purposes.  Realtors often support greenbelts because conserving green space in an area increases property values.  Really, all citizens have an interest in creating and maintaining a green space around a city.  The main opposition to creating greenbelts often comes from developers.  Several organizations around Iowa are interested in pursuing the possibility of a greenbelt around the most rapidly growing community in eastern Iowa.

Iowa City greenbelt supporters:
• Professor of Law Nicholas Johnson
• Professor of Planning and Urban Development Jerry Anthony (*need to check with him)
• Try to get a good list here of environmental advocates, community leaders, elected officials, etc.

How can a community create a greenbelt?

Efforts to establish a greenbelt involve a variety of methods.  Some of these methods include:
• Easements: provide tax incentives to landowners who allow the public to use their land for recreational purposes (“recreational easements”), or to landowners who want to make sure that the land stays in its natural state (“conservation easements”), or for agricultural purposes (“agricultural easements”)
• Land trusts preserve land by way of the property owner selling the land to the government, which protects it from certain types of uses and development through a land preservation agreement
• Donation: landowners who are especially concerned with preserving the natural state of their land can make a personal decision to donate it to the government or to an environmental organization as long as its natural quality is preserved
• Acquisition allows the government to purchase land from landowners and then place limitations on development so as to preserve its natural quality
o various bridge financing and lease variations of acquisition exist to aid the government’s purchase of land
• Transfer of Land Development: is a program which allows people to buy and sell development rights from land that has a public benefit (like forest, farm, open space or trails).  The development rights are transferred to a “receiving site”, usually a more densely populated urban area where residential development is more appropriate.
o The land with a public benefit is then placed under a conservation easement
• Eminent domain is an option, but certainly among the last resorts, for the government to obtain and preserve land for public uses in a greenbelt
• USDA Land Preservation Programs:
o Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Programs combine federal, state and local funds to purchase conservations easements on land
o Forest Legacy Program involve partnerships between the Forest Service and local forestry agencies to preserve forests
o Grassland Reserve Program preserves grassland areas through rental agreements and conservation easements

How do Iowa laws support preserving land through a greenbelt?

USDA
• Agricultural District Programs: through this program, landowners can create agricultural preserve areas, which are legally recognized pieces of land where agricultural uses are protected, according to the USDA.
• Right to Farm laws: Iowa’s right to farm laws protect land used for agriculture
• Differential Tax Assessment programs: assess agricultural land based on its use, which reduces property taxes as long as the land is used for agricultural purposes.

Iowa Code
The Iowa Code contains a number of provisions relating to land conservation and preserving natural resources.  For instance:
• generally, I.C.A. § 161A.2, part of the Agricultural and Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act states that “[i]t is hereby declared to be the policy of the legislature to integrate the conservation of soil and water resources into the production of agriculture commodities to insure the long term protection of the soil and water resources of the state of Iowa.”
o Many of the communities in the U.S. that have established greenbelts have done so to help preserve soil and waters recourses.
• Eminent domain gives state and local governments in Iowa the right to take property “for public use” (I.C.A. § 6A.4).
• I.C.A. § 335.5 directs that county zoning objectives be made in accordance with a plan designed to preserve the availability of agricultural land and “to encourage efficient urban development patterns” and to “promote the conservation of energy recourses.”
o Greenbelt creation is consistent with such stated zoning goals (as recognized in the Johnson County Land Use Plan; see notes below)
• I.C.A § 465A.1-2 describes the open space lands, statewide open space acquisition and protection program
o A.1: “Iowa’s most significant open space lands are essential to the well-being and quality of life for Iowans and to the economic viability of the state’s recreation and tourism industry.”
o A.2 . . . (1): Specific acquisition and protection needs and priorities for open space areas based on the following sequence of priorities:
? (a) National. (b) Regional. (c) Statewide. (d) Local.  . . .

Johnson County Land Use Plan
The Johnson County Land Use Plan (LUP), pursuant to Section 335.5 of the Iowa Code, lists 12 goals for land use in Johnson County.  Many of these goals are consistent with creating a greenbelt in Johnson County.  Some of these goals include: preserving agricultural land, protecting soil from wind and water erosion, encouraging efficient urban development patterns, and facilitating “parks and other public requirements.”  Other recommendations within the plan include:
• reserving open space in places well-suited to serve the public interest
• encouraging development of a trail system connecting parks and open spaces
• providing visual corridors of open space along major transportation corridors
• promoting “the use of conservation easements to secure land set aside for agriculture, open space or environmentally sensitive areas”
• protecting agriculture from non-agricultural development
• defining public hunting areas

What concerns do greenbelts raise and how can those concerns be best addressed?

Some cities in the UK that established greenbelts decades ago are experiencing “leapfrog” development, where developers simply skip over the greenbelt to build new housing and retail outside the greenbelt ring.  Some environmental advocates are concerned that this defeats the purpose of the greenbelt to contain development and provide a relief from urban sprawl.  A comprehensive long-term strategic plan that predicts where development is likely to occur, and how to best channel that growth to avoid sprawl, could prevent leapfrogging.

What other legal issues do greenbelt efforts encounter?
 
Case law supports greenbelt zoning in certain situations:

• In Construction Industry Ass’n of Sonoma County v. Petaluma, efforts to create a 200 foot wide greenbelt around the city survived a 14th Amendment Due Process challenge based on the city’s reasonable use of its police power to regulate expansion and preserve open spaces.  Construction Industry Ass’n of Sonoma County v. Petaluma, 522 F2d 897 (9th Cir. 1975).

• In Kauffman v. North Haledon, the court struck down the city’s efforts to rezone land that had been designated by the city as a possible greenbelt, stating that the city must follow the state’s requirements for selling greenbelt land.  Kauffman v. North Haledon, 229 NJ Super 349, 551 A.2d 564 (N.J. 1988).

• Some tension over greenbelt designation centers on the landowners within a greenbelt.  In Presbytery of Seattle v. King County, the court overruled a finding that a greenbelt ordinance requiring 50-70 % of land in a greenbelt be returned to its natural state was a violation of the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause because it denied landowner’s ability to profitable use of their land.  Presbytery of Seattle v. King Count, 787 P.2d 907 (1990).

What can I do to help create a greenbelt around Iowa City?

Join the growing interest for a greenbelt in Iowa City by attending the greenbelt informational meeting on   , March   at   p.m. in room   at the Boyd Law Building.