ABSTRACT
Waukesha County, located immediately west of Milwaukee County in east-central Wisconsin, encompasses 580 square miles. With its proximity to Milwaukee and its unique landscape of hills, kettles, lakes and streams, Waukesha County is a pleasant place to live. As subdivisions and strip malls rapidly replace farmland throughout the entire county, many current residents believe that suburbanization and the disappearance of farmland is inevitable. However, the type of growth that is occurring is not inevitable. Development occurs as a result of a collection of rules, practices and attitudes that determine how, where and when growth occurs. Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) is a local financing mechanism used by cities, villages and towns to attract private development in a designated area through the use of public investment. In 1977, the state legislature acknowledged the existence of financial difficulties for farmers statewide by establishing the Wisconsin Farmland Preservation Program.
