[va-richmond-general] Re: Fwd: Habitat protection
- From: deannamail@xxxxxxx
- To: robin.ruth@xxxxxxxxxxx, va-richmond-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 06:12:23 -0400
Robin, I would suggest that this person begin by talking to the management of
the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, which holds most of Virginia's conservation
easements. I believe the 20 acre limit may not be from the Code of Virginia. It
may be a policy decision, based on a simple fact of resources. It takes just as
much human resource time and effort to create an easement on 5 acres as it does
on 20, and right now there are just not enough resources (money for staff)
allocated to the groups like VOF who write easements to keep up with the
demand. I could be wrong about this, but the VOF staff will know. The director
of VOF is Bob Lee.
Some counties (like Hanover where I live) have open-space or forest or farmland
tax deferral programs where the owner gets taxes deferred to the farmland rate
in exchange for agreeing to not develop the land. Those deferred taxes would
have to be paid by anyone who buys the land for development, which discourages
buyers. In Hanover there is a 5 acre lower limit for the open space category.
So this could be a situation that could be tackled at the county level for some
relief.
-----Original Message-----
From: robin.ruth@xxxxxxxxxxx
To: va-richmond-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 11:14 AM
Subject: [va-richmond-general] Fwd: Habitat protection
Could anyone suggest whom this person could talk to about legislation to allow
small land owners to put their land into land easements?
Robin
Begin forwarded message:
From: WNash29136@xxxxxxx
Date: June 27, 2007 11:02:29 AM EDT
To: robin.ruth@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Habitat protection
I live in Amherst County and we are losing much of our land to developers. We
small land owners would like to be able to put our land into land easements,
but as of now it has to be 20 acres. Is there anyway to start legislation for
those with as little as 5 acres or less to be able to put their land in a
easement to protect the wildlife? How do you get the legislation started? 5
acres is a nice little parcel and if it your land, you should be able to put in
an easemnt if you want to. We desperatly need legislation to allow those witha
few acres to do this. The wildlife needs help now. After the land is gone, it
will be too late. Thanks, WNash
**************************************
See what's free at http://www.aol.com.
=
________________________________________________________________________
AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from
AOL at AOL.com.
Other related posts:
