Lat semester we talked about conservation easements in my Real Estate Law class. We followed a case in Charlottesville of a couple who receieved a building permit to add onto their house and a neighbor stopped them because there was a conservation easement on the land. It was a long legal mess. I didn't really get the purpose of them- I thought they were for "save the earth" environmentalists. What if you put a conservation easement (CE) on land and 50 years later it was completely surrounded by a city? What good would preserving the land be if it was affected by the pollution and smog of a city? I didn't ask that question, but I thought about it all year.
Last week we had Randi Lemmon, a CE appraiser, come talk to our Real Estate Appraisal class. I didn't even know you could appraise CE's, but I suppose that makes sense. Montgomery County is leading the state with 53 CE's. One of the main reasons people choose to do that in Virginia is to preserve farmland. It makes it affordable for farmers to continue farming and it keeps the agriculture sector in state which is great for our economy. For me personally, that makes a lot more sense
My question is coming into play in Chesterfield County (south of Richmond). A wealthy lady named Mary Moody Northen put a CE on her 81 acre farm land back in 1976. When she died, the Mary Moody Northen Endowment took over management of her land. Since 2003, they have been fighting with Virginia Outdoors Foundation (who holds the state's conservation easements) to remove the easement. The land is worth $35,000 with the easement $7 mil without it. Developers have come to the Endowment asking to develop it because it is in a prime location- in the heart of the suburbs and right off a main road. The city even asked the VOF if they could use part of the land for a park because that area is in need of one. VOF have put their foot down and said absolutely not.
I think this is going to happen quite a bit in the future. As our cities and suburbs grow, land that was once out in the country will soon be on the edge of being swallowed by the city. If land use is all about highest and best use, 50 acres unable to be developed in the middle of a city like Atlanta isn't going to do anyone any good. I can understand why the VOF doesn't want to talk about it.. If they consider removing it or making it less restrictive, then it will open pandora's box. Conservation easements are supposed to be forever. However, if more of these issues continue to rise, the standards and strictness of conservation easements will have to be looked at. Some land is just not meant to be preserved forever.
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