A new study in neighboring Delaware finds that low-density development has gobbled up hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland while costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in road construction, school bus transportation and sewer extensions, the Wilmington News Journal reports.

The paper reports that a state-sponsored study by the American Farmland Trust concludes that Delaware lost 384,000 acres of farmland between 1950 and 2005, much of it to scattered development. Over the past 19 years, the state's per-resident spending on public improvements has soared by 250 percent, the study adds.  State capital spending has increased eight times more than the population over that time and six times more than the growth in housing units, the paper reports.

"It's a confirmation of what we have been saying for the last 15 or 20 years, but mostly in the last seven years," Gov. Ruth Ann Minner was quoted saying. "Sprawl costs taxpayers." 

State officials said they hope to curb sprawl with new legislation allowing farmer to sell development rights.  Such "transfer of development rights" programs are in use on the local level in Delaware, as well as here in some Maryland counties.  The planned Delaware legislation also would provide for a special "assessment" on new residents and businesses to pay for roads, sewers and other infrastructure in designated growth areas. Developers and farmers told the paper they want to see the legislation before deciding if they can support it.

To read more about farmland losses in Delaware and Maryland, check out this report by the American Farmland Trust.