The court decision early this month favoring Amish farmers who want to establish an agricultural security area in East Lampeter Township will reverberate across the county and state, local preservation advocates said today. Two judges from the Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas on July 11 r......

An East Hempfield Township resident who opposed Independence, the high-density, 3,000-home development blocked by supervisors early this year, posed a question. "Where's the tradeoff?" she asked. "Where's the farmland being preserved?" Promoters of "smar......

Taxpayers for two decades have paid millions of dollars to preserve farms — nowhere more than in Lancaster County, the nation's leader in farmland saved from development. The rich farmland is preserved forever. In perpetuity. Or is it? Most don't know that farmers &mdash......

With the recent preservation of three farms in West Lampeter Township totaling 150 acres, Lancaster Farmland Trust has wrapped up the most successful of its 19 years. The trust closes out 2007 with 35 farms and 2,252 acres preserved, exceeding its 2007 goal by 252 acres. "This year th......

Conservationists are applauding a state Supreme Court ruling Thursday that said county officials have the right to a voice in the use of preserved farmland. In its opinion, the justices overturned an earlier, lower-court decision that gave the Ephrata School District permission to build a 50-fo......

Lancaster Farmland Trust announced Thursday that 2007 has been its most successful year to date, thanks to the recent preservation of three farms in West Lampeter Township.In total, the trust managed to preserve 35 farms and 2,252 acres in 2007 — exceeding its goal by 252 acres....

After approving the third tax hike in four years, the county commissioners voted to set aside $9.3 million for farmland preservation.•••Lancaster County commissioners Wednesday approved a 7.1 percent tax hike for 2008.That means ......

Just as they have for the past 25 years, people are flocking to Elizabeth Farms to cut their own Christmas trees. On Wednesday, the Lancaster County commissioners made sure a large part of this popular Elizabeth Township destination — which is one of the largest Christmas-tree farms in th......

Lancaster County is a national role model in farmland preservation and a leader in agriculture. That lofty praise was delivered to more than 150 county residents and civic leaders by Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff on Tuesday, during an address sponsored by Lancast......

Rob Bowman clicks a remote, and the flat-screen television hanging on the wall of the conference room flickers. "Three thousand homes can look like this," he says; the image depicts a small town called "Independence." Built upon a 309-acre tract bordered by Route 283, State ......

An imposing chandelier supplied the lights. Ron Harper Jr., of Stevens, brought the camera. And a number of fathers, angry at the county's judicial system, brought the action to the county's public presentation of the 2008 budget Tuesday night at the Duke Street courthouse. Th......

The forklift didn't impress them much, but the thought of having their own locker did. On Wednesday, a small group of fourth- and fifth-graders from the Ephrata School District toured the construction site of their new school. "I think that's going to be really cool," ......

When Caroline Novak started consulting for the Lancaster Farmland Trust in 2004, she made some bold statements. The nonprofit farmland preservation group and the county's Agricultural Preserve Board could double the number of acres they save from development each year, she predicted. M......

The veto of a proposal for a 788-acre agricultural security area in East Lampeter Township will be appealed in Commonwealth Court in the upcoming weeks, said an attorney for the Conestoga Valley Coalition preservation group. "There's a statutory provision in the ag security act that provides fo......

A rare coalition of Amish and English farmers has vowed to keep pursuing a proposal for an ag security area axed last week by East Lampeter Township. In a near-replay of a 2004 scenerio, the township supervisors turned down the farmers' petition to establish a 788-acre zone encompassing 13 ......

Amos Funk always planned to sell the family farm for development. "We never put a deed restriction on the farm because I didn't think it should be preserved," he says. Funk, now 96, pioneered the farmland preservation movement in Lancaster County. So some observers ar......

Great art is original. But art programs can sometimes be copied. Pennsylvania College of Art & Design hopes to duplicate its achievements with helping plan and create murals in the city of Lancaster by launching a similar program to facilitate other forms of public art.......

Here's a scoop: Ice cream is helping to save a 63-acre Amish farm in Fulton Township. Turkey Hill Dairy in 2005 began giving a portion of the proceeds from sales of its All Natural Recipe ice cream to the nonprofit farmland preserver, Lancaster Farmland Trust. Through the end of 2006, that......

Some farmers in East Lampeter are hoping the third time's the charm. Thirteen farmers recently petitioned the township to create its first-ever agricultural security area. Township supervisors will hold a hearing on the proposal Tuesday. It's the third time in 11 years a group......

She was a Main Street, Ephrata, kid with city stars in her eyes. "I had to move to Philly immediately after graduating from high school" in the late 1980s, recounts Carol Parrish McCoy. Next on her list was Washington, D.C. Today, she lives in a bustling city still: Lancaster....

Lancaster County now has preserved more acres of farmland than any other county in the nation. After years of finishing second behind Maryland's Montgomery County in acres permanently saved from development, Lancaster has vaulted to the No. 1 spot, according to a report published Friday in ......

Ads in Philadelphia newspapers boast about new Lancaster County homes "35 minutes from King of Prussia." Four of every 10 employees at the Great Valley Corporate Center in Malvern live in Lancaster County or Berks. One developer plans to build a 12,000-home town a mile from Lanca......

The county commissioners are considering enacting a state tax benefit for preserved farms, one that would permanently freeze the rate at which those properties are taxed. They would need the consent of municipalities and school districts in order to institute the program. But first, the......

Strasburg Borough Council president Joe Coleman, during a July 10 meeting, said a Sunday News editorial about the borough and the right-to-know act offended him.Coleman and fellow council members shared their feelings after resident Chad Harnish of 310 Miller St. expressed concern about th......

Lancaster County commissioners Wednesday approved the hiring of a new deputy administrator for human services.Frank W. Koerber, 45, of East Hempfield Township, will start work July 23 at an annual salary of $86,000.He fills a position that has been occupied by James Laughman on an i......

Fearing a tight-fisted future, farmland preservationists are preparing to tell county officials that a retreat on funding "would have devastating consequences to the future of Lancaster County." And they are putting their plea for county money in writing before the next budget is writ......

A plan to rezone 26 acres of farmland to pave the way for 156 new homes in West Earl Township is gaining momentum. Upper Leacock Township Supervisors on Thursday night voted 3-0 to recommend that West Earl leaders approve the proposal, which includes expanding the designated urban growth area t......

In Penn Township, three is a magic number.Two farms in the township were permanently preserved from development Friday, thanks to a partnership of three entities — Lancaster Farmland Trust, Lancaster County Agricultural Preserve Board and Penn Township.Each member of the partn......

Three Old Order Amish farmers in Paradise Township were hesitant. Last year, each individually expressed interest in selling their farms' permanent land development rights to the Lancaster Farmland Trust. But none liked the idea of being the first or only one among their immediate neighbor......