Purpose
The Purpose of the program is to preserve and protect the valuable scenic, agricultural and environmentally fragile lands of Prince George’s County. The area designated as the "Rural Tier" contains most of this land in the County. In order to preserve the aesthetically valuable environment and retain land for the production of food and fiber for the citizens of Prince George’s County, the County Council and the County Executive have established The Prince George’s Rural Land Preservation Program.

Program Summary
The Prince George’s Purchase of Development Rights Program is a voluntary program that focuses on the purchasing of development rights from agricultural landowners. This program permits any owner of agricultural land that meets the programs minimum qualifying criteria, to apply to sell their development rights. If the development rights on the property are purchased by the Program, an easement is placed on the property restricting any future development in perpetuity, except what is permitted under the programs' child lot exclusion provisions.

Qualifying Criteria
Location: Land must be located within the Rural Tier.
Size: The minimum size for a County agricultural preservation easement is 35 acres unless: It contains 20 acres and is contiguous to a prior preserved parcel. Landowners of smaller parcels may join together to form an eligible tract as long as each parcel has development rights to extinguish.

Application Process
All applications shall be submitted to the Prince George’s Soil Conservation District. The District shall review all applications in order to verify that the properties meet the program's minimum qualifications. All applications will be ranked and then be forwarded to the Prince George’s County Agricultural Preservation Advisory Board for review and recommendations. Offers will be made in the order the properties have been ranked.

Ranking
Each property will be ranked based on certain characteristic. These are outlined in CR-82-2006 (10).

Value of Easement
At the beginning of each funding cycle the Prince George’s County Agricultural Preservation Advisory Board will set a per acre price for each acre enrolled. This price is based on other conservation easements sold in adjoining counties. The program administrator compiles data from previous sales of TDR’s, PDR’s and MALPF easements and makes a recommendation to the Board. For the 2006 funding cycle the Board has set a per acre price of $9000.00. In addition a 10% bonus will be paid for those applicants who sign up in the first three years of the program. Those applying will know in advance what price they will receive for the extinguishment of their development rights.

Payment Options:

          Lump Sum Cash Payment
               A landowner will receive a lump sum cash payment for the
               Purchase of their development rights.

          Installment Purchase Agreement
              This option is not available at this time. However work is being
              done so that this option will be available in the near future.

Children’s Lot
The owners of record at time of easement sale have the right to request a two-acre or less lot exclusion for the limited purpose of residential use by the owner or their children. The maximum density allowed with these provisions is 1 house per 25 acres. The owner will be required to repay the County for each acre removed from the easement. Applications for lot creation must be submitted to the Prince George’s County Agricultural Preservation Advisory Board.

Participations
As of July 1, 2007 34 applications for approximately 3000 acres have been submitted to the District. Three parcels for approximately 600 acres have been approved for funding.

Relevant Links:

PDR Bill Summary: www.mncppc.org/county/PDRBILL_Summary.pdf

County CR82:  www.mncppc.org/county/CR_82_2006.pdf