Harford County officials acted Tuesday to protect more than 1,000 acres of farmland from development by adding 16 properties to county agricultural preservation programs.
Land in the northern Harford communities of Churchville, Whitehall, Street, Forest Hill and Monkton were on the County Council?s agenda to be added to the county?s preservation program, which pays farmers about $8,000 per acre to keep their land from being developed, said C. John Sullivan, agricultural coordinator for the county?s Office of Economic Development.
“They?re all being encroached upon,” Sullivan said. “Forest Hill and Jarrettsville in particular are under a lot of development pressure.”
Another nine properties will be preserved through state programs for an additional 787 acres of preserved land, said county Agriculture Preservation Coordinator Bill Amoss.
“A county like this is growing by leaps and bounds. … The purpose here is to preserve its farms in perpetuity,” Amoss said.
County Executive David Craig pushed to increase the per-acre payment from $4,000 last year to help the county compete with developers, Sullivan said.
The latest 1,167 acres will bring Harford?s total amount of preserved land to approximately 41,000 acres.
The county?s compensation can vary from farm to farm, depending on the size of the property and how much of it is productive agricultural land, he said. The more productive the farm, the more the property is worth.
“[Preservation] was something we?d looked at before, and at the time we didn?t think it was a good value,” said Tim Hopkins, who will add 160 acres of his Darlington horse farm to the county?s preservation program. “But they?ve done a good job raising that payment.”
Having real estate experience himself, Hopkins said he?d been very aware of the potential for developing the land his family has owned since the 1950s, but found the county?s latest offer more enticing.
The additional preservation land was to be announced in a ceremony Tuesday on Gene Umbarger?s Churchville farm, but County Executive Craig has canceled his public appearances for the next few days due to the death of his mother.
