Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Planning & Development Services

TO:	Lawrence-Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Commission
FROM:	Scott McCullough, Planning & Development Services Director
CC:
Date:	November 14, 2007 Mid-Month PC Meeting
RE:	Preservation of Agricultural Lands

At the October PC meeting, Commissioner Harris requested that a discussion of preserving agricultural lands be held.  While the topic has had various levels of discussion throughout the years, this memo serves to outline some of the options known to exist throughout the nation related to the topic.

Communities across the nation address the issue of agricultural preservation differently.  Probably the most common method is to provide an agricultural zoning district that requires that properties maintain some set amount of large acreage – anywhere from 1 to 40 acres typically.  This acreage amount can be a consequence of desiring to preserve agricultural, sensitive and open-space land, but is also usually a consequence of not having the ability to provide infrastructure to support higher densities.  This method usually only “holds” the land in a large-lot pattern until a city is capable of providing urban services to an area.  It may reduce the speed of development since a rezoning process is needed to develop to higher densities, but it does not preserve the land as other methods might.

A variation on the large-parcel zoning pattern is to create a district of a certain density but require that the density be transferred to a small portion of the large parcel, thus preserving in a more substantial way the agricultural lands.  This is commonly referred to as “cluster development” and can be successful in preserving agricultural lands, but if an area is urbanized to a great degree, there is the potential to change the agricultural land use to something other than agricultural as urbanization takes place.

Another method involves educating the community on the various methods of private preservation, usually taking advantage of tax reducing programs to place small or large amounts of acreage in conservation programs.  The owner partners with an organization, such as the Kansas Land Trust, to create a conservation easement that limits uses and in return becomes eligible for certain federal, state and local tax reductions.  This may be the best way to truly protect agricultural, scenic and environmentally sensitive lands, since the conservation easement is not bound to governmental zoning revisions, but is rather customized to fit the needs of the owner and is often perpetual in nature.

It should be noted that planning staff, the Douglas County Planning Coordinator (Linda Finger), an ECO² member, and K-State Extension recently met to discuss the potential for holding educational meetings to discuss the various ways open space could be preserved / conserved under private mechanisms.  The Kansas Land Trust would also like to be involved with this effort.  While the allocation of resources to other planning efforts precludes the Planning & Development Services Department from taking the lead on this effort, we stand ready to provide support and technical information as this opportunity unfolds.

Another method that is gaining ground in urbanizing parts of the country is adopting a Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program.  This involves assigning development right credits to every acre (or some other unit of land) and then creating a “sending” area and a “receiving” area.  Typically, the sending area includes the undeveloped portions of an unincorporated county and the receiving area includes the urban growth area or some other defined area where development is desired.  Development credits can be purchased from an owner of agricultural land to add density to a parcel where development is desired and expected.  Credits are sold and purchased either in a free-market or controlled system.  The owner of the agricultural land sells the right to develop to an urban density, but retains the right to live at the property and to use it for certain purposes as defined by the jurisdiction.  Such uses may include some minor divisions or open-space related development of the land in the future.  These programs are viewed by proponents as a more market-based way to provide incentive for both the preservation of farm land and the development of lands ripe for such.

There are consequences to each of these methods for the property owner and the community that must be weighed as a method is enacted.  At this time, land is held in the unincorporated County in a mixture of large and small acreages and the majority of the Urban Growth Areas are not expected to remain in agricultural use as property owners realize financial gain from land prices escalating in urbanizing areas.

Again, this memo is intended to continue the discussion of the methods available to preserve agricultural, environmentally sensitive, and scenic lands in Douglas County.  Staff is happy to pursue additional information if the Planning Commission desires.