Another victim of Maryland’s economic downturn is the state’s efforts to preserve open space and farmland, as the special funds for these programs generated by real estate transfers dry up.
“We don’t have the funding for all the conservation opportunities we have out there,” Shaun Fenlon, land acquisition director for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, told legislators Tuesday.
“We can’t be very successful for another couple of years, because I don’t see the real estate market changing any time soon.”
The state has a goal of putting 2.1 million acres — about one-third of all the land in the state — under permanent protection from development, but only about half of that is now preserved.
Funding for acquisition of land outright or by purchase of development rights on farmland is paid for by a .5 percent tax on real estate transfers, including the sale of houses. Funds for open space, which had been diverted to balance the budget in the first years of the Ehrlich administration, reached a peak of $369 million in fiscal 2007, but has declined steadily so that next year only $87 million is expected be available, Fenlon said.
Purchase of farmland easements also peaked in fiscal 2007 at $91 million, but next year is projected to be just $5 million.
“When the real estate market is hot, we have the money, but people are not as anxious to sell,” said James Conrad, director of the agricultural land preservation program. “When people are interested, you don’t have the money.”
Joe Tassone, director of land planning for the State Planning Department, said the state will not be able to preserve as much open space as it would like.
“You can do if you don’t stabilize the land base by zoning,” Tassone said.
With a shortage of funds, Del. Mary-Dulany James, D-Harford, said the state needs to look at leveraging its funds with bond issues for land acquisition.
A member of the Joint Committee on Open Space, James said the state also needs to explore ways to give counties incentives to
preserve the highest-priority open space with changes in zoning.
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