Maryland - BALTIMORE COUNTY
Countywide program - Formed in 1979 - researched by Suzanne Heflin

OVERVIEW - Baltimore County, surrounding the city of Baltimore on three sides, is the city's closest suburban area. The county participates in both state easement programs, Maryland Agricultural Lands Preservation Foundation (MALPF) and Rural Legacy, and since 1994 has managed its own locally-funded acquisition program. In agricultural easement acres acquired through all sources, the county ranks among the 12 top local programs in 2003. The Maryland Rural Legacy program is active, with five Rural Legacy areas in the county. Land trusts manage four of these areas in cooperation with the county. Easement activities are linked to several county growth management policies, including delineated preservation and growth areas, an urban growth boundary, and limits on the extension of public works. Large, contiguous blocks of farmland have been brought under easement, particularly in the Agricultural Preserve Areas of nearly 140,000 acres in the northern part of the county.

EASEMENT ACTIVITY - Approximately 25,035 agricultural acres in 207 properties, including county purchase of development rights (PDR), MALPF, TEA-21 (Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century), and Rural Legacy programs and easements (2,336 acres) acquired through cluster development provisions.
Goals: 80,000 agricultural easement acres.
Other Easement Programs: Maryland Environmental Trust has 14,228 agricultural easement acres in 225 transactions. Private land trusts hold about 200 acres.
Total Agricultural Easements in County: Approximately 40,000 acres.

FUNDING
Acquisition Spending to Date: $86.5 million
Revenues: State MALPF and Rural Legacy, annual appropriation from voter-approved bonds, county general funds, state agricultural land transfer tax, federal funds and private funds.

GOVERNANCE - The Farmland Preservation Program is located in the county's Department of Environmental Protection and Resource Management. A five-member Agricultural Land Preservation Advisory Board governs the program.

STAFF AND OPERATING BUDGET - Annual budget of about $140,000. The two-person staff includes the administrator who devotes 60 percent of his time to farmland preservation work and a full-time assistant.

ORIGINS - Reacting to urban sprawl beginning in the 1950s and 1960s, citizens promoted new growth management policies in the 1970s. The county Master Plan, adopted in 1975, delineated growth areas and instituted resource conservation zoning. Baltimore County joined the new MALPF program in 1979 and the first easements funded by the state were acquired in 1981. In 1994, the county began its own locally funded program because of uncertainty about the level of state support.

ACQUISITION PROCESS AND STRATEGY - The County Council gives final approval to county-funded PDRs. The Advisory Board reviews proposals and establishes purchase criteria. County-developed criteria are used for both county and MALPF projects, employing both quantitative and qualitative factors. Applications for the county and state programs were recently consolidated into one process. The quantitative rating incorporates both objective (researched and assessed by staff) and subjective measures, such as points based on observation at site visits.
Rating of Parcels: Quantitative. For both the county and MALPF programs, criteria include agricultural quality, farm management, contiguity, parcel size, natural resource values, planning compatibility and development proximity, and landowner discounting of price.
Other Criteria: COUNTY: Minimum of 50 acres or contiguous to a preserved property. MALPF: Enrollment in an agricultural district, at least 50 acres, at least 50 percent Class I-III soils. RURAL LEGACY: Location in a designated Rural Legacy area.

CONNECTIONS TO LOCAL PLANNING AND LAND USE POLICIES - The county's Master Plan delineates growth and Agricultural Preservation Areas. A complementary Urban-Rural Demarcation line restricts sewer and water extension into rural areas, and identifies Priority Funding Areas for infrastructure expenditures-a policy consistent with Maryland's Smart Growth legislation. Unique to Baltimore County is the People's Council, an in-house legal staff that defends the county's land use regulations by challenging contrary development actions in court.
Zoning: Agriculture Protection zoning extends to 139,000 acres in Agricultural Preservation Areas. RC2 zoning dominates in these areas, allowing parcels between two to 100 acres to be subdivided one time, plus one unit to 50 (1:50) additional acres. Other zones within the Agricultural Preservation Area allow for 1:5 density, with residences clustered on 30 percent of parcels and the remaining acreage placed under easement or with limited commercial development. The Development of Prime and Productive Land ordinance minimizes residential lot size and directs the dwelling location to maintain farm use on the remaining property.

DEMOGRAPHICS
2000 Population: 754,292
1990-2000 Population Change: +62,158 residents; +8 percent

AGRICULTURAL LAND
122,000 acres receive preferential assessment for agricultural use.
Conversion to Urban Use: In 1991-2000, 7,148 farmland acres were converted to urban use while acres put under easement in state and county PDR programs totaled 6,551. If easements acquired by land trusts are included, however, preservation efforts exceeded conversions during this period. State projections in 2001 estimated that easement acquisitions in the next few years would substantially exceed conversions in Baltimore County. (State conversion data)

OTHER AGRICULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS
1997 Market Value: $51.2 million Number of Farms: 781
Principal Commodities: Nursery and greenhouse crops, dairy products, equine

MAP NARRATIVE - EASEMENT GEOGRAPHY (PROGRAM MAP)
Agricultural easements are mostly located in the Agricultural Protection Areas in the northern part of the county. Two large blocks of easements, approaching 8,000 acres each, are emerging on both sides of I-83. At the same time, some urban growth is encroaching into farmland along the interstate. The spatial pattern of farmland in Baltimore County is characterized by large areas with little fragmentation by urban development.

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