THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 30, 1996 TAG: 9610300406
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 78 lines
The City Council formally launched its farmland preservation program Tuesday by agreeing to pay the owners of two family farms $2.74 million to not develop their land.
The city bought the development rights to 581 acres. Under current zoning, the landowners could have built 59 homes on that property.
By buying the rights, the city hopes to contain costs by blocking expensive future residential growth on the property. The payments are designed to compensate farmers for forfeiting their chance to cash in on development.
``We are trying very hard to avoid future major infrastructure costs,'' Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf said. ``We know the history (of development in this city). Now we're trying to take the step to see to it that we are spending the public's money responsibly.''
The program is expected to cost $87 million over the next 30 years. It was proposed as a way to sustain the Beach's agricultural industry while saving taxpayers from having to extend costly roads, sewer, water and other services into the city's southern half.
``It's great to get it under way,'' said council member Barbara M. Henley, who helped create the program.
Although development in the southern half of the city is severely restricted now, the program is a hedge against the possibility that future city councils will loosen those restrictions.
``You don't know what next year's council is going to do to rezone that property, or the council five years from now,'' council member William Harrison Jr. said Tuesday. ``And if they rezone it to look like what's north of Indian River Road where (the zoning allows) four houses per acre, then you've just prevented 2,000 homes.''
Because the program is funded with zero-coupon bonds that will accumulate interest, it will actually cost the city $425,000 to generate the $2.74 million over the 25-year payout period. At the end of that time, the farmers may petition the city council to repurchase the development rights to their land at whatever those rights are determined to be worth then.
The city is only purchasing easements, not actual property, so the land will not be accessible to the public.
The council approved the Agricultural Reserve Program in the spring of 1995, but it has taken until this week to work out the program's bugs and encourage landowners to participate.
``Hopefully, this will be the beginning of a significant area, a resource base where agriculture is sustainable,'' said Louis Cullipher, director of the city's department of agriculture.
Cullipher said he is sure Tuesday's purchases will be the first of many. The land would be under tremendous development pressure in a few years, Cullipher said.
Arnold Dawley, Alvah Dawley and Patsy Flora sold development rights to 531 acres south of Indian River Road along West Neck Road.
Anne Gregory and Katie Flanagan sold rights to their land on Princess Anne Road near the site of the Pungo Strawberry Festival.
None of the sellers was willing to be quoted.
Cullipher described the families as well-respected and generations-old Beach farmers.
``These landowners are leaders in the community and others will look to them,'' he said. ``There are some people who are sitting and waiting to talk to the first ones . . . This will send a positive signal that this program has merit and is worthy of evaluating.''
Cullipher said he is now working with 30 other owners considering selling up to 7,000 acres of development rights.
``It's one option landowners did not have before,'' Cullipher said. ``Hopefully it would be for a lot of landowners, but there may be some who would like to exercise other options, which is fine.''
The program is voluntary, and land can still be sold as long as future buyers know they cannot develop their property.
Cullipher said he expects the program will serve as a model for farmland protection across the state. Tuesday, the City Council acknowledged that the Chesapeake Bay Commission had given an ``innovative government'' award to the farmland program. ILLUSTRATION: Color map
Area Shown: Properties to be bought as part of the Agricultural
Reserve Program.
KEYWORDS: FAMLAND RESERVATION PROGRAM by CNB