For Billy Sifers, the owner and operator of one of Powhatan County’s only two remaining grain farms, the cars were the first sign of trouble.

Thirty years go, he said, he used to see five or six vehicles pass by during the hour it took him to cut his front field, which sits right off the road. Now, after the completion of the 711 and 288 interchange just a few miles away, he can easily count 20 times that many.

Sifers, a one-man operation, currently grows corn, soybeans, wheat and barley. He had a small cow and calf operation until two years ago, he said, but gave it up when the traffic got so bad that he couldn’t get his equipment across the road to feed the animals every day.

The Powhatan Planning Commission recently recommended approval for an inn and conference center to be developed at the historic Malvern property just a few miles from Sifers’ land. The owners of the property, Tim and Lisa Benusa, are also the owners of The Mill at Fine Creek, a reception facility also located on Rt. 711.

For Sifers, approving the new facility will be like throwing gas on a fire.

“The traffic is absolutely horrendous over here, and it’s only going to get worse,” he said.

Sifers said he’s upset with the way planners have handled the growth in the area, explaining that he feels as if he’s been lied to.

“When I built this farm 30 years ago they said it was never going to be changed,” he said. “[They said] it was always going to be that way.”

Sifers’ fear that he is part of a dying breed is not entirely unfounded. Powhatan, like many other communities across the country, has shifted over the years from a quiet farming community to a more densely populated area.

“The decline of family farming is a national trend, not just an issue in Powhatan,” said Powhatan’s Economic Director Sherry Swinson, attributing the decline to a wide range of factors from higher production costs to the development pressures that Sifers is feeling.

Swinson pointed out that the County has seen a jump in niche agricultural businesses, and specialty growers have been able to take advantage of demand in nearby urban areas such as Richmond and Charlottesville.

“They can’t entirely replace the traditional farming operations,” she said, “but they are certainly an important element in preserving the County’s rural character and quality of life, while expanding the tax base.”

There are a number of people who share Sifers’ view that the county needs to very carefully consider its course of action with regards to the development of the 711/288 area.

District 1 Supervisor Joe Walton recently organized the Huguenot Trail Advisory Committee to help residents examine different options for the area and how those options would impact both the residents and the environment.

One of the group’s stated goals, said Walton, is to promote conservation easements that will lessen the tax burden on land owners. The easements still allow for farming in many cases, said Walton, and may be the answer for people like Sifers who fear the land will soon be lost to development.

For his part, Sifers said he wishes he could turn back the clock, or at least convince developers to reconsider their plans for the area.

“I would be happy of they would just leave it alone,” said Sifers. “They are absolutely going to ruin the whole place.”

Sifers said he had hoped to continue farming for another 10 years, but worries now that he will be forced to retire much sooner. What he’ll do then, he said, he hasn’t figured out.

“I’m too old to move and I’m too old to start over,” he said.

“I couldn’t do it if I wanted to.”