Conservation easement panel funding OK'd

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$100,000 from rollback taxes will be put toward authority for purchase of development rights

By Sally Voth -- svoth@nvdaily.com

WOODSTOCK -- Four years after creating a conservation easement authority, the Shenandoah County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved funding the agency.

A 2007 ordinance set up the authority and allowed the county to acquire voluntary easements through purchase or donation.

"[The easements] are a contract between an owner of a piece of property and a qualified organization to hold the easement itself," Planning and Zoning Director Brandon Davis said in May. "The owner makes a guarantee that he won't develop the property in a certain way. It's up to the organization for the life of that easement -- which is forever -- to make sure that he stays within the terms of the contract."

It was suggested at last month's supervisors' meeting that rollback taxes be used to fund the purchase of development rights.

Rollback taxes are generated when a parcel of land is removed from the land use program, which includes horticultural, agricultural or forestal land. The owner is then required to pay taxes on the difference between the land use value -- a significant reduction -- and the market value of the property for the current and past five years.
District 2 Supervisor Steve Baker, a hog farmer, made a motion Tuesday to allocate $100,000 from rollback taxes to the conservation easement authority.

"One of the aspects of our comprehensive plan was wanting to preserve some land in Shenandoah County for future generations," he said.

The state will match localities dollar for dollar up to $120,000, Baker said. Davis has said with federal and other funding, the county could reap $8 for every $1 it put into the program.

"It's hard for me to turn down matching funds dollar for dollar," District 1 Supervisor Dick Neese said. "I think it's a good idea. We see how it does for a year."

The supervisors can use the time frame to find out if the public buys into the concept, Board of Supervisors Chairman Conrad Helsley said.

"I've always said from the beginning, and I would say today, that if you're going to really be serious in doing this, that you have to have a dedicated source of revenue," he said.
The only supervisor to vote against the donation was District 3 Supervisor David Ferguson.

"I think the entire board are advocates of protecting agriculture in Shenandoah County," he said. "When we went through the budget process, we had to decide what our wants were, what our needs were. We cut a lot of our wants. During that budget process, PDRs did not come up and were not put on the plate for evaluation for funding.

"We cut salaries of all our employees. We made that decision that we did not have the money to pay them. Now, we're in the budget year, and we're coming back and saying, well, we've got 100,000 [dollars] to do this. I don't question the value of the PDR, I question the timing."