A family farm in the middle of Harford County will help the Army keep testing its vehicles at a nearby parcel at Aberdeen Proving Ground.
A pledge for its preservation will keep development from encroaching on the Army?s loud and dusty business.
A ceremony Wednesday marked the preservation of 163 acres of farmland just across Deer Creek from the Churchville Test Area used by Aberdeen Proving Ground for off-road testing of military vehicles. The military partnered with the county and the Harford Land Trust to pay the landowners $1.2 million to keep their property as a farm.
Plans for a 22-lot residential subdivision adjacent to the testing area might have forced the militaryto reconsider its uses of the site, which currently remains rural while the rest of the base has houses, schools and other development “right up to the fence,” APG spokesman George Mercer said.
“We?re just incompatible neighbors at times,” Mercer said. “Some tests go for 48 hours, and if you get tanks going for 48 hours around the track, that?s going to get annoying to somebody.”
The Churchville Test Area opened in 1942 and remains the only hilly off-road testing area maintained by the Army. Its steep terrain and the hairpin turns in its 11 miles of dirt tracks have been used to test vehicles ranging from World War II tanks to modern, armored Humvees.
Peg Niland, executive director of the Harford Land Trust, said the Hopkins family property was under review for subdivision into 22 home sites, and its location made the land especially valuable.
“The land was appraised at about twice what the Army had to offer,” Niland said.
To afford purchasing development rights for the entire property, the Army’s Compatible Use Buffer Program paid about $675,000 of the $1.2 million, with Harford County paying the rest to keep the land from ever being more than a farm.
“It?s great for the wildlife, it’s great for the environment ? it?s just pluses all around,” Mercer said.
