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Toolkit to Save Paradise

  The growth scenarios presented in this study are predictions of the future based on actions of the past. However, this future is not inevitable. Today, communities throughout the nation are engaged in combating sprawl through a variety of mechanisms. The following is a brief summary of available tools being successfully implemented around the country. These strategies seek to both protect the rights of property owners and the rights of the community to effectively plan for the future. The most successful programs combine several of these tools.

Agricultural Conservation Easements

A conservation easement is a deed restriction landowners voluntarily place on their property to protect resources such as productive agricultural land, ground and surface water, wildlife habitat, historic sites or scenic views. Easements can provide significant tax benefits to property owners.

Purchase of Agricultural Conservation Easements

Purchase of Agricultural Conservation Easement programs compensate property owners for restricting the future use of their land.

Transfer or Purchase of Development Rights

Transfer of Development Rights programs allow landowners to transfer the right to develop one parcel of land to a different parcel of land. Generally, TDR programs are established by local zoning ordinances.

Farm and Transfer Estate Planning

Estate planning should lay a framework for a smooth transition of farm or ranch ownership and management.

Right to Farm Laws

Right-to-Farm laws are designed to accomplish one or both of the following objectives: (1) to strengthen the legal position of farmers when neighbors sue them for private nuisance; and (2) to protect farmers from anti-nuisance ordinances and unreasonable controls on farming operations.

Agricultural Protection Zoning

Agricultural Protection Zoning refers to county and municipal zoning ordinances that support and protect farming by stabilizing the agricultural land base. APZ designates areas where farming is the desired land use, generally on the basis of soil quality as well as a variety of locational factors. Other land uses are discouraged.

Growth Management Laws

Growth Management laws are designed to control the timing, phasing and character of urban growth. They take a comprehensive approach to regulating the pattern and rate of development and set policies to ensure that most new construction is concentrated within designated urban growth areas or boundaries (UGBs). They direct local governments to identify lands with high natural resource, economic and environmental value and protect them from development

Cost of Community Services Studies

Cost of Community Services studies are an inexpensive, easy-to-understand way to determine the net fiscal contribution of different land uses to local budgets. Municipal records are reorganized to assign the cost of local public services to privately owned farm, forest and open lands, as well as residential, commercial and industrial lands.

Market Approaches

Fee Hunting, Value Added production of goods, Farm and Ranch Tourism, and Conservation Real Estate utilize market economies to increase revenue on farm and ranch operations.

Tax Relief

Options are available to minimize the impact of the federal estate tax on land holdings. Conservation easements represent one option.

Money for Land Purchase and Easement

Many state and federal programs provide incentives for protecting open lands. They include: The Land and Water Conservation Fund, Federal Subsidy Programs, Conservation Reserve Program, Wetlands Reserve Program, Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Environmental Conservation Acreage Reserve Program, Environmental Easement Program, Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program, Partners for Wildlife Program, and Farm and Ranch Protection Programs.

Real Estate Transfer Taxes

Proceeds from a real estate transfer tax can be used to purchase or acquire easements on important open space and wildlife habitats on private lands.

Zoning

Zoning is the traditional regulatory mechanism to determine land use patterns. Areas can be zoned agricultural districts, wildlife districts, or residential districts depending on their appropriateness.