ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, September 30, 1996 TAG: 9609300103
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ANN ROGERS
CROSSING THE Ripplemead Bridge on U.S. 460 in Giles County, you are within four miles of Jeffery Scott and Dianne Rhody - Scott's land, a 174-acre tract with three-quarters of a mile facing onto the New River. Open, scenic and undeveloped, the parcel of land blends unnoticed into the seemingly endless succession of mountain slopes densely covered with forest, the blue-green of the New River etched silently below.
What makes this parcel extraordinary is that it is protected with a conservation easement, which means the Scott family's land will remain forested, scenic and undeveloped for generations to come.
Conservation easements have existed in Virginia since 1966. Prior to that, large landholders in Virginia were often unable to pay property taxes or inheritance taxes due to the rise in the value of their land as it lay in the path of a spreading urbanized area. Farmers were often trapped by these rising property values into selling their farmland and other open lands for housing or commercial developments.
Conservation easements came into existence to allow landholders to sell or donate the development rights to their land, thus lowering property values and lowering tax payments to a level that enabled the farms and lands to remain in families, and to remain in traditional uses such as agriculture and forestry.
The Scotts first started working on setting up the easement in 1992. They contacted the National Committee for the New River, a three-state New River watershed association, to help them. NCNR Vice President Randi Lemmon, who worked closely with the Scotts throughout the project, recalls the snags they encountered. NCNR, in spite of its history of holding conservation easements in North Carolina, could not solely hold a Virginia easement because it had been in existence in the commonwealth under five years. But Roanoke-based Friends of the Rivers of Virginia, which had been in existence the requisite five years, volunteered to co-hold the easement with NCNR, thus satisfying Virginia statute.
Because no appraiser had done conservation easements in Southwestern Virginia, an appraiser had to be found who would take the time to become familiar with the process of determining the land's development potential and development cost. A North Carolina attorney on the board of NCNR helped FORVA's attorney write the easement, which they modeled after easements from the Nature Conservancy, the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, and NCNR easements for North Carolina.
While setting precedent as the first major conservation easement on the New River in Virginia, the Scott easement takes on added meaning in light of other recent conservation efforts along the New River in Giles. The Giles County New River Greenway, implemented by a grant from the Virginia Environmental Endowment in 1993, serves to protect the New River's scenic and recreational value, as well as the area's economic livelihood, by promoting eco-tourism on the river. Forty-three sites have been identified on the river for eventual protection and promotion as eco-tourism destinations.
For Virginia landowners like the Scotts interested in preserving the natural, scenic character of their holdings, many obstacles lie in the path to acquiring conservation easements. Jeff Scott noted that Virginia landowners are restricted to donating the development rights to their land, while residents in many other states have the option of selling those rights. This is because Virginia has no funding at the state level to buy the easements.
Another problem inherent in the process is that Virginia conservation easements must conform to the comprehensive plan for the area in which the property is located. To the majority of Virginia localities, the language in their comprehensive plans cannot be interpreted as favoring the protection of open space or the making of conservation easements.
Another often-overlooked problem of conservation easements, says Leslie Grayson with Virginia Outdoors Foundation, which holds easements of statewide significance, is the tremendous burden taken on by any organization holding an easement. This includes ensuring compliance with the terms of the easement by future owners of the land, whether they be heirs to the original landowner, or buyers. Such work requires keeping a file on the property containing photos, maps and environmental studies documenting what the property was like at the inception of the easement, so that any changes can be duly noted.
She adds that the issue of using easements to block road-building projects raises tough political questions, and she notes that easement holders are small and weak compared with the Virginia Department of Transportation. Boards of organizations that hold easements consequently must have "very good and sound reasons" for selecting easement sites.
A land trust is being organized at the Fifth Planning District to hold easements in Roanoke and surrounding counties. For Virginians who care deeply about preserving Virginia's undeveloped land, the easement made by the Scotts - and the prospect of future easements - bring hope that the environmental decade is at hand in Western Virginia.
Ann Rogers of Franklin County is a volunteer for the National Committee for the New River.
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