Rippley, Samantha2023-07-012023-07-012023-06-30vt_gsexam:37919http://hdl.handle.net/10919/115621Due to their location on the urban fringe, many historically agricultural counties face development pressure from a spreading urban core. These local communities must contend with often conflicting objectives of providing economic development opportunities while at the same time protecting their county's natural resources. Land conservation policies incentivize landowners to keep land identified as critical environmental resources in their natural state. In this project, we analyze property-level administrative data to evaluate whether land conservation policies and neighbor land use patterns affect the probability of land parcel development. We find some evidence of the contagion effect and that the county's acknowledgment of Priority Conservation areas impacts development motivation.ETDenIn Copyrightland developmenturban fringeconservationThesis