Agricultural Preservation

Despite questions about a 1989 agreement with the county, about 95 farmers will be eligible for thousands of dollars' worth of bonuses for putting their land into the state's Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation.The Carroll County Commissioners voted yesterday to honor the agreement, which rewards those who preserve their land by paying them a percentage of the value of the development rights, in addition to money they receive from the state for entering the program. The agreement could cost the county up to $1.05 million.

Land preservation seminar planned The Harford County Department of Planning and Zoning will hold an Agricultural Land Preservation Seminar from 8 a.m. to noon March 30 at Highland Presbyterian Church, 701 Highland Road in Street. The speakers will be David Thompson, chairman of the Agricultural Preservation Advisory Board; Bill Amoss, administrator for the Harford County Agricultural Preservation Program; Jay Young, an attorney with Brown, Brown & Young; and Brian Lutters, a certified public accountant with Clifton Gunderson LLP. Topics will include county rural land-use goals, land preservation easement options, partnerships with land trusts, land preservation and estate planning; and land preservation income tax tools.

Rezoning farm for a golf course makes sense ...We have been following with interest the recent stories about the Rash farm in southern Carroll County. Much of the focus has been on the rights of the Rash brothers to sell their property and live a comfortable retirement. This has been balanced by the desire to retain rural farm land.We've lived In the Sykesville/Eldersberg area since 1980 and my wife has taught in the Carroll County school system since 1971. We moved, here for the affordable housing, but have welcomed the growth in services and conveniences that have come over the years.

The historic Carroll County farm whose pumpkin patch was at the heart of one of the McCarthy era's most famous spy cases is among nine farms the county will submit to the state as agricultural preservation districts.After a public hearing yesterday, the county commissioners voted to recommend that the state designate the farms, totaling more than 1,000 acres, as preservation districts.This step requires the owners to commit to no development of the land for a minimum of five years.It makes them eligible to sell development rights to the state through an easement, but does not require them to sell the easement.

Owners of three North Carroll farms took the first step yesterday toward permanent protection of their land from development, winning acceptance into the county's agricultural land preservation program.The county commissioners voted unanimously to designate the farms, totaling 376 acres, as agricultural preservation districts.If the districts are approved by the state Agricultural Preservation Foundation this month, the farms will be eligible for permanent protection and owners will be eligible to sell the development rights to the state.

The county's planning board yesterday approved asking the state to make three farms -- a total of more than 433 acres -- eligible for Maryland's agricultural preservation program.If their request is approved by the state in July, owners of the land would have to refrain from development for five years for their land to be considered an "agricultural preservation district." It is a first step in preserving the land by selling the state development rights.The parcels are:86.57 acres owned by Dorothy F. Munshaur and her brother, Russell L. Fogelsong, at 3005 Mayberry Road in Westminster.

A historic Carroll County farm that belonged to former Communist Whittaker Chambers -- a player in one of the most sensational spy cases of the McCarthy era -- received preliminary approval for agricultural preservation yesterday.The 202-acre farm now owned by Chambers' son, John Chambers, was among nine properties -- totaling more than 1,000 acres -- the county planning commission recommended be included in the agricultural preservation district.The Chambers' farm drew national attention in 1948, when Chambers dramatically produced microfilm from a hollowed-out pumpkin that purportedly tied former State Department official Alger Hiss to Soviet agents.

Friends and family members remember former western Howard County resident Adelaide Close Riggs as a woman who appreciated the beauty of her 489-acre horse farm in Daisy.She loved it so much, they say, she offered 283 acres as an environmental easement in December 1994, in part to eliminate any prospect that it would be developed.Since her death Dec. 31, developers, county officials and residents alike have wondered whether her land partner, Dr. Michael Cavey, would grant an easement on his 206 acres or become one of the many neighboring property owners to develop this traditionally rural part of the county.

A historic Carroll County farm that belonged to former Communist Whittaker Chambers -- who figured in one of the most sensational spy cases of the McCarthy era -- received preliminary approval for agricultural preservation yesterday.The 202-acre farm, owned by Chambers' son, John Chambers, was among nine properties -- totaling more than 1,000 acres -- that the county planning commission recommended be included in the agricultural preservation district.The Chambers farm drew national attention in 1948, when Chambers produced microfilm from a hollowed-out pumpkin that purportedly tied former State Department official Alger Hiss to Soviet agents.

A historic Carroll County farm that belonged to former Communist Whittaker Chambers -- a player in one of the most sensational spy cases of the McCarthy era -- received preliminary approval for agricultural preservation yesterday.The 202-acre farm now owned by Chambers' son, John Chambers, was among nine properties -- totaling more than 1,000 acres -- the county planning commission recommended be included in the agricultural preservation district.The Chambers' farm drew national attention in 1948, when Chambers dramatically produced microfilm from a hollowed-out pumpkin that purportedly tied former State Department official Alger Hiss to Soviet agents.

The largest group of Howard County landowners in years sought to preserve their farmland forever in the Agricultural Preservation application period that just ended, according to Joy Levy, program administrator. "We are pretty thrilled" at the big response, Levy said. Thirteen landowners are seeking to sell to the county development rights on 1,427 acres, which is probably more than the county can afford right now, Levy said. That compares with three farmers who preserved 247 acres in 2007, the last time the county took applications - just after the maximum price per acre doubled to $40,000.

Article on car lot missed key point Larry Carson's article Feb. 1 on the effort of Concerned Citizens of Western Howard County to block development of a used car lot in Daisy missed one important point our community organization has been making about the need for rezoning in the county's rural west. That point is that if rezoning had been done by the county when it should have been done, we would not be fighting a proposal to build a used car lot in a rural community where the General Plan in 1990 and 2000 said such large-scale commercial development is impractical and undesirable outside of five designated rural growth areas, of which Daisy is not one. The problem was created by the failure in the 2003-04 comprehensive rezoning process to follow policy set in the 2000 General Plan that was adopted to protect the rural character and resources of the county's largest remaining area of agricultural preservation, rural conservation and rural residential land - nearly 70,000 acres.

After a lifetime in farming, 67-year-old Andrew Lohr wants to retire. He probably could sell his nearly 100-acre farm in Churchville for development but instead accepted an offer from Harford County. Lohr will place the property in Harford's agricultural preservation program. "I am putting all the land I own in preservation, in perpetuity," he said. "Perpetuity, I like that word." Lohr is one of 13 property owners who will join the Harford or state preservation programs this year. The County Council is considering an additional 10 farms for preservation and is expected to approve those next month.

After going without any takers for five years, Howard County's agricultural preservation program has succeeded in enticing three farmers to participate by doubling the maximum per-acre price. Calvin Murray, 83, whose family has farmed in Howard County for generations, will sell the development rights on 166.3 acres to the county for $40,000 an acre - twice as much as he could have gotten last year. His parents bought the Mount Airy-area farm he lives on for $75 an acre in 1919, he said.

Land preservation seminar planned The Harford County Department of Planning and Zoning will hold an Agricultural Land Preservation Seminar from 8 a.m. to noon March 30 at Highland Presbyterian Church, 701 Highland Road in Street. The speakers will be David Thompson, chairman of the Agricultural Preservation Advisory Board; Bill Amoss, administrator for the Harford County Agricultural Preservation Program; Jay Young, an attorney with Brown, Brown & Young; and Brian Lutters, a certified public accountant with Clifton Gunderson LLP. Topics will include county rural land-use goals, land preservation easement options, partnerships with land trusts, land preservation and estate planning; and land preservation income tax tools.

With five properties annexed in the past year - and two pending - two Westminster City Council members want to set up standards that regulate annexations. Councilman L. Gregory Pecoraro, who will head a committee with Councilman Robert P. Wack, said they would offer recommendations over the next two months so the city could adopt a resolution for these standards by the end of the summer. "We don't want to keep reacting to things coming," Pecoraro said. "We want a plan to figure out how this will fit into our vision of the city.

THE ISSUE: -- Do you favor the proposal by Howard County officials to nearly triple -- to $36.5 million -- the amount the county is willing to spend on agricultural preservation and to double the maximum price per acre -- to $40,000 -- it will pay to keep its remaining farmland from sprouting new homes? How much more must we preserve? The fact of the matter is out of all the remaining land that is left to be developed in the west, 70 percent will be preserved through current zoning regulations as preservation parcels in subdivisions or by sending [development rights]

Howard County officials are moving to nearly triple - to $36.5 million - the amount the county is willing to spend on agricultural preservation and double the maximum price per acre it will pay to keep its remaining farmland from sprouting new homes. County Executive James N. Robey said the changes are needed to draw participants into the preservation program in the face of spiraling land prices. "We don't get many takers anymore" because of intense competition among developers for land, said Robey, who wants to double to $40,000 per acre the amount the county would pay for development rights on prime farmland.

Howard County's 11 state legislators have been especially polite to each other in delegation meetings this election year, but after a final voting session Wednesday in Annapolis in which Democrats killed three Republican-sponsored local bills, a few verbal talons emerged. The delegation voted to kill two bills sponsored by Del. Gail H. Bates that would have slightly cut county income taxes and cut property taxes for income-limited seniors, and one sponsored by Del. Warren E. Miller intended to prevent a state cutoff of agricultural preservation funding.

Doughoregan plans draw opposition Howard County leaders are reacting cautiously to plans for developing part of Doughoregan Manor, the Colonial-era Carroll family estate, though a proposal to extend public utilities onto the land has drawn opposition. The descendants of Charles Carroll, the only Roman Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence, have been talking with county officials since summer about their proposal to raise tens of millions of dollars to pay for restoration and preservation of their 1720 estate and its 20-room historic mansion, plus 30 other buildings on 892 acres, partly at public expense.