Man bites dog story on rural land use.

In a switch from the usual story of property owners fighting zoning boards to retain their land in the face of encroaching development, a story in today's Q.C. Times examines cases of exactly the opposite situation. Several owners of agricultural land near Parkview are fighting a zoning board that is attempting to slow urban sprawl, preserve some agriculutural land, and encourage better planned expansion. In a twist on the typical situation, the land owners are fighting for their right to turn their farmland into subdivisions.

Unless the County Board overturns a Planning and Zoning Commission decision during a meeting that begins at 5:30 p.m. today, the land will change from an agricultural-general classification to the highly protected and restrictive agriculture-preserved status. The meeting will be in the first-floor meeting room of the Scott County Administrative Center, 428 Western Ave., Davenport.

The landowners insist their properties are not suitable for farming and eventually should be open to residential or neighborhood development. The county counters by saying agricultural land is disappearing too quickly across Iowa and that housing should be concentrated in incorporated cities.