Preserving Your Land

Are you interested in preserving part of your estate as a conservation property?

Reasons to consider land preservation include wanting to:

• Protect the land you cherish, including maintaining access to equity from your property for you and your family, now and into the future.

• Allow for the sale of a portion of your conserved property can protect your efforts, sustaining them for the foreseeable future.

• Finally, if you believe in the importance of preserving open space and/orfarmland, and wish to protect our natural resources, not just for your family but for generations to come.

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Are you interested in maximum financial gain?

There are options, including protecting the land with an easement or selling the land as fee simple.  In either case, State-certified Green Acres appraisals will determine the market value of the land based on comparable sales in the area.

 

Easement

An easement is essentially the sale of the development rights to your land.  You retain ownership, and responsibility for maintenance, of the property, but the land will be preserved in its natural state.  Because you retain ownership, the financial gain is less than outright sale of the property.  The Land Trust would be interested in such a transaction if the land abutted an existing preserve and limited trail access were granted to allow movement through a trail network.

 

Fee Simple

This is the sale of all or a portion of your property.  If the sale involves a portion, you and the Land Trust would need to seek subdivision approval from the Land Use Board for preservation purposes.  Financial gain would be based on the average of two separate appraisals conducted by NJDEP Green Acres-certified appraisers. Because the Land Trust would use public funding for the purchase, the land must be open to the public.

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Are you interested in the tax benefits of a partial donation?

Whether you donate the full value of the easement or fee simple sale of the land, or a partial value (which is referred to as a “bargain sale”), the IRS requires appraisals to substantiate your donation.  Thus, if the sale of your land was appraised at $1,200,000 and you decided to sell for $1,000,000 and declare at $200,000 charitable donation, rules governing charitable donations must be adhered to. (For more on this, visit “Instructions for Form 8283, Noncash Charitable Contributions” https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i8283.pdf)

 

 

Is a Charitable Land Trust likely to be interested in purchasing my land?

Every accredited Land Trust is driven by strategic thinking about land preservation.  Considerations include size of the property, proximity to other preserves, potential to link to existing trail networks, public access, stewardship issues, integrity of the natural resources, potential to limit development, and the like.

 

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Do you have an existing farm with prime agricultural soils?

The State and County have active farmland preservation programs.  You can learn more by contacting the SADC (State Agriculture Development Committee -- https://www.nj.gov/agriculture/sadc/) or the Hunterdon County CADB (County Agriculture Development Board -- https://www.co.hunterdon.nj.us/540/County-Agricultural-Development-Board-CA).  They can guide you through the farmland preservation process.

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What do I need to be aware of?

Although the Land Trust bears most of the costs in a preservation project, the land owner will need to be guided by a lawyer skilled in land transactions.  Moreover, the process can take time: from an option to buy (both parties enter into an agreement where the Trust expresses interest and then seeks to find funding), to a contract for sale, to a possible subdivision for preservation, to all the elements of a real estate closing.  As experts in this process, Land Trust professionals will guide you through all of these steps.

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How do I get started?

Call us.  Tewksbury Land Trust professionals are skilled in working with people willing to preserve their land.  You can start with our President, Kristin Hassett @ 732-522-3063 or our Secretary, Chris Teasdale @ 908-439-3796.  If you’d rather just ask an introductory question via email, send us a note at chris@tewksburylandtrust.org.