 |
 |
 |
|
|
|||||||
|
|
Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about Qroe Farm and Preservation Development Farm Separation from Residential use Is Preservation Development inconsistent with growth control? What types of homes are appropriate? Can Preservation Development work on non-farm properties? How can I be certain that Qroe Farm Preservation Development permanently preserves the land? Preservation Development is applicable to many zoning environments, land uses and landscape types. While the previous sale of development rights restricts the flexibility and planning of the land and can reduce the total amount of open space ultimately, it is entirely possible in many instances to build a very effective Qroe Farm Preservation Development program on a farm property that has sold development rights. The ultimate benefit to the farmer financially may suffer some because of the reduced flexibility, but it may well be possible to devise a program that can provide from now on the all important financial underwriting for the farmer’s operating costs. Another potential complication aside from outright sale or suppression of rights is a landowner’s participation in long-term land use tax incentives, which may delay approvals for many years. The Qroe Farm Preservation Development program works on broad range of farming activities. It has worked for livestock, viticulture, orcharding, row crops and vegetable farming – even sensitive commercial forestry. The design of the project has to be carefully tailored to the particular kind of farming extant today, but must also maintain the flexibility to accommodate future uses (biofuels, CSAs, sustainable forest products), and future regulation or business changes in farming. Most of the potentially adverse features of a farm (smells, noises, chemicals, dust) can be accommodated or ameliorated by sensible changes to practices or good land planning. These issues are addressed in the earliest planning for the project, and reinforced in community legal structures, so they do not create complications for the community later. The purpose and cornerstone of the Qroe Farm Preservation Development is the creation of a well-run farm in perpetuity. In nearly every case, this is best accomplished by setting up the community in a way which allows independent decision-making by agricultural producers. The farmer may simply lease land under favorable terms, or he may obtain an equity leasehold of a right to farm all of the farmland and facilities. He may be able to pass on that right to his family or he can sell that right to another farmer. Profits that he makes from the farming activity are his. Value that he adds to the farm accrues to his benefit. His obligation is to run a decent quality farm by established standards. So long as standards are met, he will set the course for his operation. There are also shorter-term and less exclusive arrangements which the farmer may enter into, but it is this long term, non-interference relationship that is often most desired and most effective for all parties.
There is a widespread and persistent belief that farmers can only exist in an insulated and pure farming environment. This viewpoint argues that housing cuts into the essential critical mass of agricultural activity, severing production from essential distribution and services. While this is often true in the case of conventional, development, we have found through experience that a careful design of both agricultural and development components, and strong legal structures, can make this adjacency both comfortable and mutually beneficial. Moreover, it is our belief that, whether you believe the two can live together, the reality of land markets, agricultural businesses, and public regulation has ensured that farming and housing already live together, and will do so increasingly over the coming century. Decades of attempts to isolate rural areas, including private easements, overlays and agricultural zoning, have achieved mixed results. Society has succeeded in protecting some extraordinary individual properties, but has largely failed at protecting the overall rural environment Qroe Farm addresses this reality positively by looking to history. Farms have always included housing, whether a luxurious manor, or worker housing, or more commonly a mix of types. Historically, homes on farms have followed rules: keep the house out of the most productive land, build in the “seams” between farm and forest, design the home to take advantage of the environment, not to defy it , These rules have lately been upset by both weak agricultural values and rapidly rising development values. When applied to a modern community, the traditional rules establish a relationship between the farmer and homeowner where each preserves value and security for the other. Each has incentive to see the other succeed. We believe it is counterproductive to chase a theoretical model that defies the characteristics of American land use, even if that model were a good one. Better to build or guide a model that recognizes varied interests and requirements and addresses them effectively. Preservation Development does just that. In a Qroe Farm format, the farmer is better able to operate profitably and without interference than under any attainable alternative. Preservation Development does not accelerate attrition of the critical mass of farming in an area but rather stems the loss, keeping land productive, piece by piece, as development occurs, wherever it occurs. We do not build a development and hope the neighbor puts his land under easement. Qroe Farm faces issues head on and offers workable solutions.
It is inconsistent with “No Growth” approaches. It is not at all opposed to “Smart Growth,” although Qroe Farm communities are extremely low-density and rural. The Qroe model is a complement to Smart Growth policies, and a way for communities to lock in productive farm uses, at large scales, with little or no input of public funds The fundamental conflict, played out in many communities, between rural residents and “Smart Growth” planners has three elements, each of which is addressed by the Qroe Farm model. First is that Agricultural Zoning, or downzoning, is inequitable to landowners. Land value is typically the largest financial asset of the landowning family, often dwarfing their income from farming or other work. Eliminating this value by fiat (downzoning) is unfair, even when it is politically possible (and often it’s not). Delineation of a “Growth Boundary,” a device which is almost always politically determined, creates situations of extreme disparity, where landowners on one side of the line see their property value soar, and the reverse happens on the other. We have seen numerous examples where such proposals tear a community apart, or become so contentious that rural protection measures end up stalled. Other zoning approaches, such as slope or soils zoning, can be more accurately applied, but are seldom more equitable. Qroe recognizes this challenge, and confronts it by allocating extremely limited growth and meaningful land conservation on many individual parcels, rather than ad hoc suburban communities adjacent to unfunded, unmanaged conservation preserves. Third is that pure conservation of rural lands, beyond a few special parcels, is impossible, if society wishes to properly compensate landowners. The limitations of public financing and private charitable donation or tax incentives are apparent even in the relatively good economic times of the past fifteen years. How much more so in times of budget difficulty. The scale of this issue requires participation of market forces, and of private capital. It is this happy marriage of for-profit development and true conservation ethos which make the Qroe Farm model special.
Preservation Development can provide a vital mix of housing. Just what that mix turns out to be in a particular case depends on the characteristics of the property, the desires and needs of the community and market realities. It is the purpose of the Preservation Development to hold density to an absolute minimum, consistent with providing an adequate return for the land owner, farmer, Qroe and its investors. Experience shows that this will mean a density significantly below that permitted under existing zoning regulations, usually amounting to a “private downzoning” of approximately 50%. The housing type is not limited to high-end homes. Often it provides for the year-round, existing residents of the community. It can include a meaningful, affordable housing content and where this is done, it is typically scattered in such a way as to be unidentifiable within the development pattern. Where it is in the interest of saving more land and providing for special housing needs, attached housing, schools or commercial uses may be components of the mix. During the planning phase of the project, extensive discussions are held with the community officials and private sectors to determine what the optimal housing mix should be. The design is then tailored to accomplish that mix, insofar as feasible, and consistent with conservation and farming goals of the Qroe Farm.
Conceivably, Preservation Development can be used anywhere. Two variables always need to exist. They relate to the character of the property itself and the types of markets in the area where it is located. Some properties are better than others. Some locations are better than others. One specific element we seek is the ability to build structures and maintain a feeling of privacy, which often entails topography or variegated vegetation which we can use in the planning process. The primary requirement of a given market is that there must be a demonstrated value for conservation land. Even if there has never been anything like a Preservation Development attempted, there should be demonstrated value-add from conservation parcels (on adjacent parcels, for example) Ultimately, the flexibility of the Qroe Farm method makes it possible to design the community in any given case to fit that property and that market. Often, it is possible to combine adjacent properties to produce a better result for each. Always, it is vital to design the particular program to provide a product that works for that property.
Yes, in a tract of land that deserves to have a major portion permanently preserved, Qroe Farm Preservation Development techniques can be used to attain that goal in several ways. They make the ‘acquisition’ funds for preserving the land easier to obtain. They make those funds fully recoverable by their source (a land trust, for example), for later reuse on other projects. Funds can be leveraged so that much more land can be preserved for the same amount of committed funds. A format is established under which the ongoing maintenance and discipline of the preserved lands are much more easily and effectively accomplished, in both the short and the long term. A perpetual means of self paying for the ongoing upkeep and management of the conserved properties is provided. This long-term management and oversight is the shortcoming of most traditional tax or donation-driven land conservation. The Qroe techniques may also make the conserved lands more useful and enjoyable. They can make them more readily attachable to adjoining lands, and thereby permit the creation of a growing system of privately-funded open space, that will have greater impact on the community and usefulness to its citizens.
The Qroe Farm concept was developed specifically to solve this problem, and we believe it does so better than other ways we've seen. If a farmer were to sell his development rights under programs that are currently popular, he would gain an immediate shot in the arm that would help his cash bind and help him relieve his debt burden and possibly improve his facilities. He would have nothing, however, to support his continuing costs and would face the ultimate difficulty of maintaining his farm operation when the cash he has received ran out. When farming ceases, the farm dies. In designing the Qroe Farm, the fundamental issue was to satisfy the legitimate ongoing operating cash and management requirements of the farmer in a way that would always be there to support him, even as his costs inflate. If one wishes to have the farm operating in perpetuity, any required financial underwriting for the farm operation must be truly effective in perpetuity. In short, a relationship must be created between homeowner and farmer. The Qroe Farm accomplishes this. The means of this financial support are several and are a mix between the transfer of costs from the farmer and the addition of direct cash assistance when needed. Under Qroe Farm Preservation Development:
It is vital to the Qroe Farm Preservation Development program that there is absolutely permanent protection of the natural resources identified for such conservation and that there is continuing financial support to sustain them. Typically, between 80% and 90% of the total land area in a Qroe Farm Preservation Development project is permanently preserved and supported, in perpetuity, either as farmland or open space - as woodlands, fields or wetlands. This permanence is accomplished by a layered approach. It does not rely on the public domain which could change as political priorities change. It does not rely on charitable trusts, whose permanence itself is not assured and whose purposes may change with the times. It does not preclude the added protection by either of these valuable interests; it just does not rely on them. The first line of defense in assuring the permanent protection of the land in a Qroe Farm is the privately deeded and recorded easements and related restrictive provisions. A perpetual easement is recorded, providing for the protection of the land as open space or as farmland in perpetuity. This easement is granted by each individual owner in the Qroe Farm to every other individual owner in that project. It cannot be waived other than by the unanimous agreement of the private parties, sometimes including the farmer. It is our belief that the likelihood of gaining such unanimous approval is essentially zero and that the likelihood of such private rights being taken away by legislative or judicial action in the future is the least likely of all possible scenarios. This means permanence. To further reinforce this permanence, Qroe may further protect the property by granting protective easements to the most appropriated local, regional or national land trust. It may, also, add an additional public layer of protection by granting the easement to a suitable town or community conservation structure.
There are some pieces of land that by their nature need to be relatively isolated and physically protected. These may be unusually virgin resources, delicate ecological areas or sensitive wildlife vegetation and habitat. Where these circumstances exist, the Preservation Development assiduously protects them. Likewise, separation is established where development land needs to be insulated from agricultural operations, whether for nuisance, safety or liability. Most often, however, conserved lands are not harmed by human proximity. In these cases, it is the goal of the Qroe Farm to make the natural resources accessible and continuously enjoyable by the community in which it exists. It seems inappropriate to have to get in one’s car and drive to a piece of conservation land, find parking and then enjoy that land as an isolated event. Rather, Qroe makes every effort to permit direct pedestrian and visual access on to conservation land so that people can enjoy it at all times and on short notice. If properly designed, this integration greatly increases people’s use without diminishing the conservation value. Just as significant is the fact that the Qroe Farm approach assigns pieces of a large, contiguous conservation area to many individual landowners. With careful design and a robust legal structure, this division is not “fragmentation.” Rather, it creates a new generation of land stewards, each with a stake in the continued successful management of the conservation land. It is inherent in this Qroe Farm approach, that the conservation systems that are created can be interconnected with others in a community and beyond in such a way as to eventually contribute to a large and important continuous open space system. At every Qroe Farm community, we are open to proposals from adjacent landowners to integrate with the model easements and protections in place.
|
|
 |