State to Consider First Request to Terminate Farmland Preservation Easement

In an unprecedented move, the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation (MALPF) will conduct a public hearing on November 15, 2012, on the request by the Mullinix Brothers Partnership (Howard County) to terminate the agricultural land preservation easements that MALPF holds in three   farms that the partnership owns. This is the first request that MALPF has received to terminate one of its purchased farmland preservation easements and, in this instance, concerns the partnership’s request to terminate easements that the Foundation acquired more than 25 years ago on the following farms:

• “Murry Farm,” 1320 Shaffersville Road, Mt. Airy, MD  21771(166 acres);
• “Home Farm,” 14220 Howard Road, Dayton, MD  21036 (123 acres); and
• “Howard Farm,” 4460 West Linthicum Road, Dayton, MD  21035 (201 acres).

The hearing, which is required by State law, will be held on Thursday, November 15, 2012, in the Dining Hall, Howard County Fairgrounds, West Friendship, Md., at 6:00 p.m. The public is invited to attend and to comment on the partnership’s request to terminate these easements.  Written comments may also be sent through December 14, 2012 to Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation, Maryland Department of Agriculture, 50 Harry S. Truman Parkway, Annapolis, Maryland 21401, attn:  Carol S. West, Executive Director.

Created by State law in 1977, MALPF acquires easements in farmland and woodland, restricting the land’s use, in order to provide sources of agricultural products within the State for the citizens of the State and to protect agricultural land and woodland as open-space land. To date, more than 284,000 total acres have been preserved by the Foundation on nearly 2,100 Maryland farms. This represents a total State investment of more than $610.8 million. In Howard County, 3,970 acres have been preserved by the Foundation on 31 farms, representing a public investment of $5.5 million. If easements acquired by county and other state preservation programs are considered, 564,000 acres of farmland have been preserved in Maryland, which represents the greatest ratio of farmland preserved to total landmass of any state in the country.

Although farmland preservation easements that the Foundation now requires are perpetual, if the easement’s purchase was approved for purchase by the Maryland Board of Public Works on or before September 30, 2004, the landowner, 25 years after its purchase, may request that the easement be reviewed for possible termination. The easement, however, may be terminated only if (1) the county governing body, after receiving the recommendation of the county agricultural preservation advisory board, approves it; (2) the Foundation determines that profitable farming is no longer feasible on the land; and (3) the Maryland Board of Public Works approves termination. If an easement is terminated, the current and any future landowner would have the ability to subdivide and develop the land as provided under local zoning laws and regulations.

According to a survey conducted by the Schaefer Center for Public Policy in 2011, public opinion supports the State’s investment in agriculture. A full 97 percent of respondents believe that it is important that the State preserve farmland for farming. Marylanders believe that farms, the products they produce and the open-space they provide should remain a part of the State’s culture and economy.