NEWS
By Alison Knezevich, The Baltimore Sun | February 20, 2014
A West Virginia-based gas company is suing dozens of landowners in Baltimore and Harford counties to gain use of portions of their properties for a $180 million pipeline project. In three federal lawsuits filed since January, Columbia Gas Transmission seeks to invoke eminent domain to obtain temporary or permanent easements on more than 400 acres for its 21-mile pipeline extension. The project, which gained approval from federal regulators last November, has sparked concern among neighbors about safety, environmental issues and property values.
NEWS
By Andrea F. Siegel, The Baltimore Sun | April 8, 2012
Along Lyons Creek in southern Anne Arundel County are woods that offer perfect places for migratory songbirds to hide their young, native trees that provide a fruit buffet for critters, and marshes where ducks scour for snacks. One tract in the area recently took on added significance. When Pat Melville placed her land into a program to ensure that no development can occur on it, she created a milestone for a local nonprofit organization. Her 53 acres became the 50th property placed into a conservation agreement with the Scenic Rivers Land Trust, which is holding the easement jointly with the Maryland Environmental Trust.
FEATURES
By Tim Wheeler | December 21, 2011
In a deal some say could be a model for government land preservation in lean budget times, a wealthy businessman and former Anne Arundel County politician has agreed to give up development rights -- and grant limited but free public access -- to a 950-acre former wildlife sanctuary on the Eastern Shore that he bought 18 months ago. Robert A. Pascal, a former county executive and state senator, has offered to donate a permanent conservation easement...
NEWS
By Jessica Anderson, The Baltimore Sun | September 9, 2011
Howard County's agricultural preservation program committed over the past two years to buy development rights to more than 1,000 acres of farmland, as a slow housing market helped boost landowners' interest in the easements. The county announced last week that all of the money in the program has been spoken for, and said a continued down market will likely slow the process of collecting enough to protect more land. The Agricultural Land Preservation Program - funded through real estate transfer taxes - allows agricultural property owners to apply for easements that would "extinguish the development rights and limit the use of the land," said program administrator Joy Levy.
NEWS
By James Drew and James Drew,sun reporter | January 8, 2008
SANDY SPRING -- For decades, the road was a lifeline for an African-American enclave in Sandy Spring. Residents walked on it to get groceries at the country store. They drove on it to gather firewood. They cleared snow off it and made sure water drained. The unpaved Farm Road, as it has always been called, is still there, a remnant of a long-gone rural life in this eastern corner of Montgomery County. But a government agency has now determined that, legally speaking, the road never existed.
NEWS
August 4, 2007
The state has purchased easements to preserve two Baltimore County farms. The 97-acre Jenkins property, a crop farm in the 12400 block of Park Heights Ave. in the Owings Mills area, would be preserved under a $576,480 easement purchase approved this week by the state Board of Public Works, officials said. The board also approved an easement purchase of $264,110 for the 55.9-acre Zodhiates property, a tree farm in the 4200 block of Beckleysville Road in northern Baltimore County, officials said.