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Tree farm will be preserved through county program
When Sugarloaf Township farmer John Wolk sold the development rights to his farm on Monday, he said it was a simple decision for a simple reason.
Sure, there is a nice financial incentive that comes with selling the development rights under the Luzerne County Agricultural Preservation Program. Wolk admits the monetary aspect is nice, but for him there is a more important reason behind the preservation.“Is the money you get for preservation equal to what a developer would pay you? No,” Wolk said. “It’s strictly for the love of farming that we protect farms from development.”
The Wolk Brothers Tree Farm encompasses more than 200 acres and is farmed by John Wolk and his brothers, Albert and James. Monday’s transaction preserved 78.8 acres of the farm, and the family enrolled another 73 acres in the program in 2004. To date, the program has preserved 14 farms totaling more than 1,500 acres of farmland in the county.
It may keep a lot of developers away from the area in general because they know there’s a lot of large tracts preserved,” he said. “Someone who doesn’t farm may find it hard to believe that farmers are so attached to the land, but it’s in our blood and we love what we do.”
The North Branch Land Trust was instrumental in making this happen.
2 days ago
5 comments:
Good for Mr Wolk!
By the way, never ever get me started on wal-mart. I detest everything about that chain.
this man is taking away my god-given right as an American to drive my SUV to Walmart, Chick-Fil-A and then Target. Sons of bitches
An agricultural conservation easement will preserve the farm, but we need to do a little more to preserve the farmer. There's an Act that was recently adopted in PA that will permit a freeze on real estate taxes for a preserved farm. I think that's a step in the right direction.
Actually, the best way to preserve farmland is to create a conservation district through zoning but most local officials are too afraid to make the tough choices and change zoning to promote smart growth. The tax freeze and the easement are weak attempts to preserve open space.
LVDem, Let me explain how it works since real estate is my bag. Before ANYTHING happens, the municipality must create what you call a conservation district. It is actually an Act 43 Agricultural Security Area. After that happens, a farmer with the requisite amount of land and the right kind of soil can apply for an agricultural conservation easement. What this amounts to is a buy out of the farmer's development rights. Once this easement is granted, the property can never be developed. Because the farmer is in effect selling his development rights, he'll get a tom of money, but not so much as if he sold to a developer.
This preserves the farm, but it does not preserve the farmer. In most cases, the amount of money from one of these easements will keep him in business about five years.
So the legislature decided to give municipalities the discretion to freeze the real estate taxes for such a farmer. No matter what happens to real estate taxes elsewhere, the farmer will never pay more taxes than when the easement was granted. That should help a little more.
The conservation district that allows for the conservation easement and this new tax freeze. But property in a conservation district can still be developed.
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