Planning department asks steady capital for land preservation, while directing grants to neighborhood improvements

Megan Benjamin, the countyland preservation administrator in the Department of Planning, told the Planning Board Subcommittee on the Capital Improvement Budget and Program that Baltimore County is continuing a long-term push to protect rural and agricultural lands and that the department needs steady capital funding to seize opportunities when landowners are ready to sell conservation easements.

Benjamin said the county is working toward an overall target of 80,000 protected acres and that, as of the end of calendar 2024, the county has about 71,593 acres protected in permanent conservation easements across multiple programs. She told the subcommittee those acres are protected through a mix of state and local tools, including the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation (MALPF), county agricultural-preservation purchases, state and county rural legacy easements and donated easements to land trusts and the Maryland Environmental Trust.

"We work towards this goal through a number of programs," Benjamin said, and she told the subcommittee the…