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Traditional rural development policies focus on attracting
businesses to an area to hire local laborers and increase
spending on goods and services, thereby stimulating the
local economy and local population growth. Amenity-based
development takes a different approach and focuses on
attracting tourists and others who desire to benefit from
local amenities. These people, too, demand goods and services
from businesses, which stimulates employment growth and
economic and community development.
ERS researchers developed an amenity
scale that measured
the relative attractiveness of a county's local natural
amenities. Rural communities with ample natural amenities,
such as mountains, lakes, beaches, and a warm climate,
have grown more rapidly in terms of population and employment
than other rural areas (see Rural
Economic Development: What Makes Rural Communities
Grow?). The ERS Natural
Amenities Scale data product
gives more detail and provides the county codes.
While natural amenities are a key ingredient in the
development strategies of certain rural areas, they are
also important to agriculture. In recent years, farm
numbers are up in high-amenity rural counties and down
in low-amenity counties (see Farm
Programs, Natural Amenities, and Rural Development).
In addition, a lack of natural amenities is also associated
with rural counties that have lost population (see Population
Loss Counties Lack Natural Amenities and Metro Proximity).
 d
Amenity-Based Development Strategies
Rural communities capitalizing on the appeal of natural
amenities employ various strategies to promote tourism,
recreation, and retirement living. Some States and communities
engage in advertising campaigns. Others improve public
access to their amenities or provide business assistance
to recreation-oriented firms such as hotels, restaurants,
and ski resorts. If successful, these strategies could
improve the socioeconomic well-being of the host communities
(see Rural
Areas Benefit From Recreation and Tourism Development
and Retiree-Attraction
Policies for Rural Development).
Some amenity-rich rural areas have grown so rapidly
that local development strategies have shifted to focus
on controlling growth so as to preserve the natural amenities
and the sense of community and limit adverse impacts
of such growth effects as traffic congestion and school
crowding. Controlling growth and preserving amenities,
including farm and forest land, are also important considerations
in rural areas surrounding rapidly growing cities, where
uncontrolled sprawl may be threatening the quality of
life (see Development at the Urban Fringe and Beyond:
Impacts on Agriculture and Rural Land and Farmland
Protection: The Role of Public Preferences for Rural
Amenities).
Strategies for Areas With Limited Natural Amenities?
Rural development plans may call for the creation of
recreational amenities, for example, by damming up a stream
to make a recreational lake, or by building a golf course
or a public park. In addition, communities may design
development strategies to capitalize on cultural amenities
such as historical battlefields, local history museums,
and local forms of music, arts, or food.
More generally, many rural communities, including those
with ample natural amenities, might find it advantageous
to make their communities more "amenable"
to both visitors and residents by enhancing "urban
amenities"—that is, by facilitating the provision
of goods and services that urban people have come to expect
but that are often nonexistent in a rural setting. This
might entail upgrading the local infrastructure (for example,
providing access to the Internet or improving the quality
of drinking water), improving the local library system,
and enabling the establishment of restaurants, hotels,
casinos, and entertainment businesses, assuming a market
for such businesses exists.
See related
links and recommended
readings covering issues on amenity-based rural development
strategies.
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