The Wake County Farmland Preservation Plan provides one of NC's fastest-growing counties with a comprehensive, data-driven roadmap to protect its remaining farms and working lands while also balancing economic development. The plan addresses one of the most urgent planning challenges in North Carolina: how can a county growing by tens of thousands of residents per year protect the family farms, prime soils, and agricultural heritage that define its rural character before they are gone? Wake County has lost more than 23,000 acres of farm and forest land in nine years, and the American Farmland Trust identifies it as one of the three most threatened counties in the state. This plan's approach is visionary in several respects:
Framing farmland as essential infrastructure — The plan reframes farmland not as passive open space but as essential public infrastructure. The plan builds an economic case for farmland preservation that speaks directly to fiscal conservatives and growth advocates, not just environmentalists.
Highlights Wake County's Unique Funding Mechanism — Wake County pioneered a PUV Rollback funding mechanism in 2023 that uses previously deferred taxes paid when landowners exit the Present Use Value (PUV) program and dedicates them exclusively to agricultural conservation easements. The plan documents and champions this model, positioning it as a statewide and national example.
"About the Farmers" narrative profiles — The plan features detailed narrative profiles of working farmers across Wake County telling their stories, concerns about succession and rising taxes, and hopes for the land they've stewarded for generations. This qualitative layer, combined with rigorous quantitative analysis, produced a document with both policy expertise and human insight.
Engagement — Community and stakeholder engagement was central to the process, producing one of the most data-rich pictures of farmer and resident attitudes toward farmland preservation in the county's history. This included an Advisory Committee, Stakeholder Engagement Workshop, Public Survey (679 respondents), PUV-enrolled Landowner Survey (1,400+), historically underrepresented community engagement, and farmer storytelling.
Equinox's approach combining deep data analysis, robust community and stakeholder engagement, and actionable policy recommendations grounded in community values produced an effective document that reflects the potential for preserved farmland and economic development to coexist as adjacent land uses, creating a well-balanced, healthy, and resilient community.