How Preservation Pays?
(Page 6 of 8)
August/September 1995
by Molly Miller
Local governments sometimes designate zones of land for agricultural use, and this can provide a temporary protection from development. But, zoning is changed every few years as part of a regular governmental planning process. It may be unpopular with some landowners because it, once again, takes away their potential economic gain from selling to a developer, and in this situation there are no tax breaks or compensation. Zoning definitely means your options for development or preservation, for good or ill, are in the hands of your local politicians.
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A more profitable variation on zoning are agricultural districts. Participants in an agricultural district agree to keep the property in agriculture for a finite period ranging from 5 to 20 years, and in return they are granted breaks on property taxes and nuisance complaints. (Nuisance complaints are usually filed by suburbanites offended by the smells or sounds of bordering agricultural properties.) Participants may also have access to cost-sharing for compliance with environmental regulations, grants for soil and water conservation, low-interest loans, and exemption on state inheritance taxes. The district must be established by the state or county. Landowners must petition local government to establish these districts.
It you're interested in lobbying local government for preservation programs, contact American Farmland Trust, 1920 N Street, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 659-5170. AFT also has office in Chicago, Illinois; Northampton, Massachusetts; and Davis, California. Mainly a policy organization, AFT is a good general resource for conservation information. They offer a number of guides, video, and publications about conservation.
Historic Preservation
Many people take the historically significant aspects of their property for granted. Wagon trains took the Overland 'Frail through our neighbor's ranch, and pioneers carved names and dates still visible in the windswept red sandstone cliffs there. Native American tepee rings, arrowheads, and ceremonial rings scatter about our community, and cattle and horses and people step through them as a matter of course, hardly noticing them. But your property doesn't need an archeological dig or artifacts dating back hundreds of year to be considered historically significant. Buildings, equipment, cultivation-any traces of a former way of life, even one that existed in this century-may be worth preserving for future generations to see.
Rural landscapes that make it onto the National Register for Historic Places are protected from development. These places may reflect the day-to-day activities of people engaged in traditional work such as mining, fishing, and various types of agriculture. In order to be considered historically significant, a rural property needs to have some links with important historic trends or themes. Recent changes that have altered historic characteristics may make ,r property ineligible. So, if you knocked down that old dock or shed, or redesigned the orchard, you may have lessened the historic significance of your property.
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