Bucks County planning staff outlines new municipal participation option to preserve more farmland

Planning commission staff told the Bucks County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 22 about a new municipal participation program intended to expand farmland preservation in the county and allow municipalities to add local funds to county and state matching grants.

A planning representative, identified in the meeting as Mr. Ives, said the program was designed to "complement our current existing County state AG preservation program" and that preserved farms would remain privately owned under agricultural conservation easements. "They are not owned by the county," he said.

Ives described an application backlog of "about 40 plus farms, which ... equates to about 1,300 acres," and said the county typically preserves about 250 to 300 acres per year under the existing state-county program. He said the municipal participation initiative will allow the county and participating municipalities to preserve more acreage annually and to preserve some farms lower on the existing ranking list.

Ives said Bedminster Township has set aside local funds and is participating in the program for the current year. He said the program also allows participating municipalities to receive a portion of the state matching funds the county receives, thereby increasing the total funds available to preserve farms within a municipality.

Commissioners and staff noted the county program has been in place roughly 35 years and originated with a voter-approved referendum. Discussion described the program as voluntary for property owners and said the county typically serves as a co-grantee on conservation easements rather than the property owner.

The planning presentation was informational; the transcript records that a resolution connected to the program "is here today," but it does not record a separate roll-call vote or outcome on that resolution within the publicly available meeting excerpts.