page_49 < previous page page_49 next page > Page 49 some Mennonite developers needed to be taken on directlya callousness epitomized by a comment made by one prominent Mennonite developer to a local land preservationist: "Hands off Mill Creek Valley: it's ours." Some preservationists said West Earl Township had been able to keep out Garden Spot Village, so why not Earl Township? Now, two farms, not one, would soon be lost to development, and in the words of one preservationist, "The Eberly and Weber farms are only a half mile apart, so the 'alternate site' is not much of an improvement; it's a sellout." "The Earl Township Farmland Preservation Group never went for the jugular" is a comment repeatedly uttered by some land preservationists in Lancaster County. As they saw it, when the going got really tough, the group backed away. The most passionate man to espouse this view was Mill Creek Valley resident and lawyer Christian Eaby. Initially hired to represent the Earl Township Farmland Preservation Trust at the October 29, 1992, hearing, several months later, by mutual agreement, Eaby and the group parted company. According to one source, who has asked to remain anonymous, supervisor Jack Buch and Alan Musselman urged the Earl Township Farmland Preservation Trust group to terminate Eaby's services because he was pushing for litigation. Eaby then formed a one-man blitzkrieg organization called The Farmland Alliance, notable for its scathing quarterly newsletter, The Earl Township Farmland Voice. According to Eaby, "I had never seen a group you could call a 'protest group' so confused and intimidated by government authorities. I had done lots of this kind of work beforeI was the president of a neighborhood associationand usually the problem is that people are so angry you have to hold them back. But here, people were reluctant to say anything, much less go to court or get involved in an election. Supervisor Jack Buch was very effective in his 'techniques.'" By April 27, much of the compromise was worked out: the Webers, interested in selling their farm, would do so; the Rancks would reluctantly sell twenty-five acres of their farm; and the Eberly farm would be returned to its prior status: 80 percent zoned agricultural, 20 percent zoned ruralresidential for one-acre lot homes. The Lancaster Intelligencer Journal proclaimed the compromise "a victoryfor both sides." 2 After the "victory," Eugene Eberly was asked about future plans for his farm. "For the present time we'll farm it," he said, declining further speculation. He said he'd originally decided to sell the farm to Garden Spot Village because of its location in an area of high development pressure. "It's hard to justify farming this high-priced land," he said.3 But many of his Old Order farming neighbors wondered why. Â < previous page page_49 next page >