A wiser national pattern would encourage states to default toward local control with guardrails, such as those outlined above, rather than broad preemption that severs decision-makers from consequences. Where states do retain override mechanisms, they should include strong prime farmland overlays, transparency mandates, and full accounting of long-term costs to neighboring properties and township budgets. This approach respects real infrastructure needs without repeating the moral failure of treating rural communities as blank slates for someone else’s metrics of progress.

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