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BY PEKAY PETTUS
ULTIMATELY, it is the decision of the individual land owner, not a planning commission or governing body, that determines land use. Public legislation, such as zoning or preferential taxation, affect land use more as a guide for individual decisions than as a direct regulatory force.
So concludes “Land Along the Blue Ridge,” a study of land use and ownership in Rappahannock County, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to find out what is happening to the pattern of land use and ownership in rural counties impacted by a metropolitan area.
Gene Wunderlich, senior agricultural economist, said the draft report of “Land Along the Blue Ridge'* represents a pilot study, the first of its kind in the fiation. In making the survey, the Department of Agriculture surveyed both landowners and parcels of land. An article in last week’s Rappahannock News reported on the conclusions of the survey concerning changing patterns of land use. This article deals with the survey’s conclusions about the land owners, who will ultimately make the decisions of land use.
THERE ARE an estimated 3,032 owners of 4,756 land parcels in the county. Most of these owners are husband-wife (59%) or single (25%) persons, and a smaller proportion of owners are partnerships other than husband wife (9%) and other owners such as estates, corpora
96.0%