Farmland conservation in Carroll County will take a giant leap forward in 2007 as some 3,000 acres will be permanently set aside for conservation.
The county will spend more than $11.5 million to buy the development rights on the ever-shrinking stock of farmland in the once-rural area of central Maryland. The money includes $3 million in bond revenue, $6.2 million in property taxes, $500,000 in agricultural transfer taxes and $1.8 million in state funds.
“Our goal has been to purchase the easements on about 2,500 to 3,000 acres each year, and we have been very successful in meeting those standards,” said Ralph Robertson, program administrator for the county?s Agricultural Land Preservation Program.
Each year, landowners bid to get into the preservation program, Robertson said, with owners being paid fair market value for their land.
“We are trying to get the best farms that we can and try to purchase the easements on that farm that would build our easement area,” Robertson said.
As a result, the inventory of developable land in Carroll County is shrinking.
“Maybe we are taking it out of the hands of a few people who want to see it developed, but the greater community has supported this program from day one and see the value of this gorgeous land being left open,” he said.
Real estate agent Vincent Damico of Main Street Realty LLC in Sykesville said he hopes the land preservation program will increase property values in the county.
“If they continue to do this it will hopefully put the property and land that is available at a premium and help raise the prices once again of Carroll County,” Damico said.
Damico is right that property values in the county have taken a hit lately. The Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. indicator of real estate trends in Carroll County showed a 5.55 percent drop in the average selling price of a home last month. The average price of a home sold last month was $354,593, down from $375,436 in September 2005.
“Hopefully [the preservation program] will continue to keep property stepping up in value,” Damico said. “With builders not able to pick up land as easily, buyers will turn to homes that are already built.”
Thus far, about 50,000 acres have been set aside, with a goal of 100,000 acres by 2012.
