Rowan County to seek state match, make conservation position full time to accelerate farmland easements

Rowan County commissioners on April 6 authorized the county manager and county attorney to work with the Soil and Water Conservation District and the Ag Advisory Board to pursue state Ag Growth Zone designation and to make the district’s part‑time conservation easement specialist a full‑time position.

The move is intended to accelerate voluntary conservation easements on farmland and to leverage county funding for state matching grants. Chris Sloop, director of the Rowan Soil and Water Conservation District, told the board the district has seen a sharp increase in landowner interest in easements as development pressure grows and that the county’s previously reserved present‑use‑value (PUV) rollback funds could be used as local match.

"Participation in the Ag Growth Zone will allow us to leverage county rollback funds at roughly a dollar‑and‑ten cents on the dollar from the state," Sloop said, urging the board to authorize the manager and attorney to draft application language and a local funding plan. He added the district has prepared multiple easement applications and needs more staff time to prepare the hundreds of hours of due diligence each application can require.

Sandra Abbey, the conservation easement specialist who works for the Soil and Water office, described a proposed $1,000,000 local easement initiative: $25,000 per traditional easement to cover upfront appraisals and surveys, a stewardship fund for long‑term monitoring, and a $950,000 allocation to establish the county’s Ag Growth Zone funding stream that the state would then match. Abbey noted competition for statewide easement funding is steep — she said 118 applications were submitted statewide in the last cycle and only seven were funded — which underpins the argument for local capacity and matching dollars.

"Conservation easement is a voluntary legal agreement that permanently protects land from development," Abbey said, describing easements as a tool to keep farmland and prime soils in agricultural use and to limit sprawl. The district currently holds several easements and reported multiple additional landowners ready to apply in the next cycle.

Commissioners approved the request by voice vote and directed staff to bring a budget amendment at the next meeting to fund the personnel change and initial allocations. County staff said the board had already approved dedicating PUV rollback funds to farmland preservation in a recent meeting and that final budget and ordinance steps will follow before any grants are submitted.

Next steps: county staff and legal counsel will draft application language and a proposed budget amendment; the board will consider the amendment in a future meeting and, if approved, the county will apply for the Ag Growth Zone in the upcoming cycle.

(Reporting note: quotes and details above are drawn from the April 6, 2026 Rowan County Board of Commissioners meeting.)