County looking for funds for easement program

By Brandon Shulleeta

Published: November 23, 2008

Trying to survive a weak economy, Albemarle County is asking for donations as it considers a massive funding cut for a program that preserves rural pristine land.

The county executive’s office recommends Albemarle set aside $4.4 million in local funds during the next five years for a conservation easement program — down from previous hopes to reserve $9.7 million during that same period.

“Since pretty much all of the money goes to purchase of development rights … basically what it does is, it reduces our ability to purchase development rights in half,” said county spokeswoman Lee Catlin.

Officials hope they could compensate for some of those funding cuts by seeking more donations and grants, and working more aggressively with local partners that provide the bulk of the area’s conservation easements, Catlin said.

The Acquisition of Conser-vation Easements program, established by the Board of Supervisors in 2000, uses county funds to purchase development rights from owners of rural pristine land — land that’s beneficial for the county to keep undeveloped, for reasons such as aesthetic and environmental value.

The amount of land preserved through the ACE program has exceeded 5,000 acres in Albemarle. More than 70,000 acres are in conservation easements in the county.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said in July that Albemarle County has been a leader in Virginia for conserving farmland and forests.

For the first six years of the ACE program, the funding level was $1 million per year. In the past two years, funding has been set at one cent of every $100 value of assessed real estate, with funding totaling about $1.4 million for fiscal 2006-07 and $1.6 million for fiscal 2007-08.

If the Board of Supervisors were to approve county staff’s recommendations, less than $900,000 in taxpayers’ money would be dedicated per year to the ACE program from fiscal 2010 through fiscal 2014.

Supervisor Sally H. Thomas said she thinks there should be a public hearing to allow people to discuss the funding recommendation.

“If the past is any predictor of the present, they’re not going to appreciate that kind of cut,” Thomas said. “Next to support for schools, it’s been the most frequently supported program that we have.”

Property owners who put their land in conservation easements forfeit their development rights in exchange for money or tax incentives, but they still own their land.

In Albemarle, most enter into conservation easements through organizations such as The Nature Conser-vancy, the Piedmont Environmental Council, the Thomas Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District and the Virginia Outdoors Association.

Though the county is considering reducing funding for the ACE program for the next five years, Catlin said, “that doesn’t impact our partnership with those other programs to continue bringing conservation easements forward.”

Donations to the ACE program are tax deductible and 100 percent of the donations are used for purchasing conservation easements, Catlin said.