|
|||||||||||||
Printer-Friendly
Email this Story
Post a Comment (0)
Easements made easy: Lexington firm works with Northern Virginia land owners
From the perspective of Hobart and Sheila Bauhan, protecting the future of their small farm south of Berryville with a conservation easement was easy.
They talked it over with their children, made a few phone calls, signed a few papers, and the deal was done. Their 75 acres are off-limits to developers forever, and about $160,000 -- payment for the Virginia tax credits they sold -- arrived in the mail.
Behind the scenes, it was a lot more complicated. The combined efforts of the Clarke County Conservation Easement Authority and Conservation Partners, a consulting firm based in Lexington, made it happen.
Making the commitment to preserve land requires the services of appraisers, lawyers and accountants. All of them must be paid.
Enter Conservation Partners, a 15-person firm in Lexington dedicated to guiding landowners through the process with a minimum of confusion.
"We have the mentality of a business, but the soul of a land trust," said William Funk, easement specialist for Conservation Partners.
State tax code allows Virginia income taxpayers to take a credit of 40 percent of the value of an easement for the year of donation and the 10 following years. Taxpayers whose tax bracket prevents them from taking advantage of their credits can sell these credits for cash to other Virginia taxpayers, who can use them to reduce their own tax bills.
Conservation Partners helps with that transfer process by absorbing the costs of the appraisals and legal paperwork, Funk said. The company waits to be reimbursed at the end of the process when the tax credits have been sold.
No one else, Funk said, offers to advance the up-front costs to the landowner, and no one else offers the "soup to nuts" service through the easement process.
Because of the significant tax benefits of protecting land, Funk said, having top appraisers and tax experts is key. Conservation Partners, he said, has access to those experts.
The goal, Funk said, is the creation of easements that "preserve identified conservation values and that provide significant public benefit in perpetuity."
Because of the company's reputation for good appraisals, Funk said, there is a waiting list of Virginia taxpayers who want to buy tax credits marketed by his firm.
Conservation Partners, because it sells tax credits, cannot hold easements. Under the Open Space Land Act in Virginia, Funk said, any county, any soil and water conservation district or any nonprofit that meets certain criteria can hold an easement.
The Virginia Outdoors Foundation, an agency of the state, holds easements protecting more acres than anyone else, just under 300,000 acres so far. Gov. Tim Kaine (D) has set a goal of adding 400,000 acres to the statewide total during his term.
VOF as a rule will not work with properties smaller than 100 acres. Other easement-holding bodies, including the Land Trust of Virginia and the Clarke County Easement Authority, can step in and hold easements on smaller acreages. They are guided by the land's historic or environmental value, not the size of the holding.
Clarke County created its easement authority in 2002, said Natural Resources Planner Alison Teetor. It was modeled on the Purchase of Development Rights program in neighboring Loudoun County – that program is gone, a casualty of the Republican pro-growth Board of Supervisors that took office in 2004.
In Clarke, the authority can buy easements or accept donations, Teetor said. It gets some end-of-the-year money from the county, and leverages that with state and federal grants. Thus far, it holds easements on 42 properties totaling about 2,400 acres. Six were purchased, the rest were donated.
Wingate Mackay-Smith, chairman of the authority, first suggested to the Bauhans that they consider putting their land under easement.
"Boy, that sounds like something I want to do," Hobart remembered saying. "We did it because we love the place, and it cuts your real estate taxes by quite a bunch."
The appraisals are the main expense, Mackay-Smith said, and Conservation Partners can help there, and with brokering the tax credits.
There are a lot of "good parcels" of less than 100 acres in Clarke that merit protection, Mackay-Smith said. The authority can act where the VOF cannot.
Holding easements, Mackay-Smith said, "allows us to follow our Comprehensive Plan, which directs us to save historic and agricultural land. We are trying to keep development in the places where we have infrastructure."
The county, she said, "saves an enormous amount of money by holding these easements. There's an unfortunate perception that more houses means more taxes, but it really means more expenses, especially for schools."
Most of the landowners who have donated easements, Mackay-Smith said, are like the Bauhans -- not wealthy, but "they want to protect the land and the community. They do it out of the goodness of their hearts."
The Bauhans' case was a classic "win-win" for everyone, said Mackay-Smith.
The Bauhans are assured the land they love will stay the way it is. Clarke County advanced its conservation goals and saved a lot of money by spending a little.
You must be logged in to post a comment.