January 13, 2002
Residents Looking to Save Farmland
Bedford citizens found an expert for advice
By Jennifer L. Berghom
Sedalia – When dozens of concerned Bedford County residents banded together three months ago to work to save farmland from development, they had no strategy.
The Bedford Citizens for Land Preservation knew its focus was to become educated on land preservation issues and stir public awareness. As for strategy, they sought expert advice – Mary Heinricht, Mid-Atlantic director for American Farmland Trust.
Heinricht helped establish a purchase of development rights program in Virginia Beach several years ago.
That program – called PDR – allows governments, land trusts or individuals to purchase the right to develop a property from the landowner. PDR programs in Virginia are part of the state’s Open Space Land Act.
Heinricht will speak at the Sedalia Center Tuesday about ways the Bedford Citizens for Land Preservation can develop a rural preservation strategy.
Creating the state’s first PDR program in Virginia Beach in 1995 took about two years, she said, and since then Virginia Beach has preserved about 6,000 acres.
Heinricht said development creates two values on a piece of property: the resource value, or how much the land is worth as farmland, and speculative value, or how much is the land for uses other than a farm.
As the speculative value increases, it makes it more difficult for a farmer to afford his property, so he would be inclined to sell the land to a developer, she said. These programs buy the developmental rights, which will bring the farmland value back down and help farmers stay in business as farmers.
PDR programs also help mitigate the amount of complaints localities receive from residents about the effects of growth.
“People think of farms as pictures, not as industrial (sites),” she said.
Although it is important to save some green space, not every acre should be preserved. The PDR programs should be used to control growth and not stifle it, she said.
Heinricht said communities should seek to preserve the best farmland and develop a strategy about where they want to target their land preservation.
“It really depends on what the community wants to do,” she said.
Heinricht said American Farmland Trust studied a Maryland program three years ago and found that program’s weakness was that it did not target an area for the purchases.
“There’d be a farm here and a farm there… (it) looked like a gun shot,” she said. Heinricht said the Bedford Citizens for Land Preservation’s approach to preserve land while growth is in its infancy is a good method.
“I think that’s best to avoid conflict,” she said. “Protect the land before its speculative value (increases).”
Nancy Raine, one of the group’s founders heard Heinricht speak at a meeting Bedford County officials held in 2000 about purchase of development rights and asked her to speak at this Tuesday’s meeting to educate residents.
The Bedford citizens group has been interested in purchase of development rights programs since the group’s inception and has formed a subcommittee to research such programs.
“We know it can be funded because it’s been done,” Raine said.
Stephen Stevick, chairman of the group’s steering committee, said from looking at localities in other parts of Virginia, there seems to be a predisposition for aggressive development.
More development means higher costs for community services, he said.
Bedford, the seventh-fastest growing county in Virginia, saw its population increase from 45,656 to 60,371 in the past 10 years.
“The cost of growth comes out of the pockets of those not involved (with the growth), those already here,” said Stevick. “People may become land poor.”
Stevick said residents are also concerned about uncontrolled growth because as the cost to hold land increases, people are forced to sell their properties.
Stevick and Raine said the group has been receiving responses from historical societies, real estate groups and other organizations showing their support.
