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Baltimore County staff outline 80,000-acre preservation goal and current progress
Summary
Department of Planning official reviewed the county's land-preservation history, the 80,000-acre target for permanent protection, and the mix of state, county and donated easements that account for roughly 72,217 acres preserved to date.
Megan Benjamin, land preservation administrator in the Baltimore County Department of Planning, told a county "lunch and learn" that the county aims to protect at least 80,000 acres of farmland and forest in perpetuity and has so far conserved 72,217 acres.
Benjamin said the county's urban-rural demarcation line (IRDL) and successive master plans established a framework to concentrate infrastructure and growth inside the IRDL while prioritizing resource protection, including drinking-water supply, outside the line.
The goal to protect about 80,000 acres dates to a University of Maryland Extension study in the 1990s that estimated the land mass needed to maintain a viable agricultural economy, Benjamin said.…
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