Table 111
LOCALLY PROPOSED AGRICULTURAL LAND IN THE REGION BY COUNTY: 1964, 1972, AND 1985
Locally Proposed Agricultural Land
1964-1972        1972-1985
1964a            1972b            1985c           Change           Change
Percent          Percent          Percent
County        Acres   of Total  Acres  of Total  Acres  of Total  Acres  Percent  Acres   Percent
Kenosha ...... ...95,525    10.7   132,728   13.5    73,508    8.9    37,203   38.9   -59,220   -44.6
Milwaukee  . . ..   7,929    0.9     1,914    0.2     3,599    0.4    -6,015  -75.9     1,685    88.0
Ozaukee ...... ...32,321     3.6    83,884    8.5    81,375    9.8    51,563  159.5    -2,509    -3.0
Racine ....... . 160,874   18.0   158,984   16.1   138,602   16.7    -1,890    -1.2  -20,382   -12.8
Walworth ..... .281,465    31.4   309,272   31.4   241,855   29.1    27,807    9.9   -67,417   -21.8
Washington . . . . 219,679  24.5   207,512   21.1   178,835   21.5   -12,167    -5.5  -28,677   -13.8
Waukesha ..... ..98,054      10.9   90,276    9.2   112,778    13.6   -7,778    -7.9   22,502    24.9
Region          895,847   100.0  984,570   100.0  830,552  100.0    88,723    9.9  -154,018   -15.6
aProposed by local communities in land use plans and zoning ordinances, 1964.
bProposed by local communities in zoning ordinances, 1972.
cProposed by local communities in zoning ordinances, 1985.
Source: SEWRPC.

Proposed Agricultural Land Use: As indicated in
Table 111, in 1985 land zoned for agricultural
use encompassed 830,600 acres, representing
48 percent of the total area of the Region.
Milwaukee County had only 3,600 acres of land
zoned for agricultural use and accounted for less
than 1 percent of the regional total. Among the
other six counties, land zoned for agricultural
use ranged from 73,500 acres in Kenosha County
to 241,900 acres in Walworth County.
As further indicated in Table 111, the area zoned
for agricultural use has decreased significantly,
by 154,000 acres, or 16 percent, since the previ-
ous zoning inventory in 1972. While some of this
decrease is due to rezoning to residential and
other urban districts, much of the decrease is
attributable to other factors. First, as a result of
the increase in floodland zoning, large areas of
farmland zoned for agricultural use in 1972, and
in many cases still included in basic agricultural
districts under general zoning ordinances in
1985, are identified as zoned conservancy under
the 1985 zoning inventory. As previously indi-
cated, under the local zoning inventory, flood-
land zoning districts are represented as
conservancy districts, regardless of any underly-
ing basic zoning district, where the provisions of

the floodland district effectively preclude urban
development. Floodland zoning regulations,
however, generally do not restrict the use of land
as cropland. Second, in certain other farming
areas, wetland and woodland tracts, previously
included in agricultural zoning districts, have
been rezoned into more appropriate lowland and
upland conservancy districts as part of local
zoning refinements. Third, large areas of farm-
land in the Towns of Brighton and Bristol in
Kenosha County, formerly zoned for agricultural
use, were unzoned in 1985, a result of the
decision by those Towns not to approve the new
county zoning ordinance adopted by Kenosha
County in 1983.
It should be noted that, while there has been an
overall decrease in land zoned for agricultural
use in the Region since 1972, there have been
increases in agricultural zoning in certain areas.
This is primarily the result of rezoning of rural
areas from residential and other urban districts
to agricultural districts, including both exclusive
agricultural districts and agricultural districts
which allow very low-density residential devel-
opment in addition to basic agricultural uses. In
Waukesha County, such rezoning contributed to

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