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Board approves pilot land preservation easement purchases and accepts donated easement; program funded with PV rollback funds
Summary
The board approved a local land preservation and easement program, authorized purchase of a 104-acre conservation easement (75% purchase / 25% donation) and accepted a donated 59-acre easement; the board also approved a budget amendment to use PV rollback funds for the program.
The Union County Board of Commissioners on Feb. 3 approved actions to implement a new Land Preservation and Easement Program and authorized funding to acquire conservation easements using property-value (PV) rollback receipts.
Alan Aldridge, director of the Union County Soil and Water Conservation District, described the program and presented two easement items. The first is a pilot acquisition of a 104-acre farm on Morgan Mill Road (Easement 902025001) with approximately half the property in agriculture and half in forestland, about 60 acres of soils of statewide importance and 3,100 feet of Rocky River frontage. Staff presented an estimated conservation-easement value of about $962,000 and proposed purchasing 75% of that easement value (approximately $720,000) with the landowner donating the remaining 25% (about $240,000).
The second item is an estimated 59-acre donated easement (Easement 902025002) on Walker’s Mill Road; staff said the county would accept the donation and pay transaction costs (surveys, environmental assessments, legal fees) but would not purchase the easement. Aldridge also explained prior board authorization from November 2023 that allowed the county to apply for state farmland-preservation grant funds and to allow the Soil and Water District to hold conservation easements.
The board approved the ordinance establishing the Union County Land Preservation Easement Program, authorized the purchase of the pilot easement and accepted the donated easement. The board also adopted a budget amendment appropriating PV rollback funds (from 2024 collections) to the Land Preservation program to cover purchase and transactional costs. Commissioners and staff said the local program also positions easement projects to compete for additional state and federal matching funds (ADF P and NRCS/ALE) in future applications.
The vote to approve the ordinance, easement actions and budget amendment passed by voice vote.
