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Page 2 acre offers for PDR, and will farmland preservation report September 2005 TDR market robust in Montgomery Continued from page 1 readily with the state's lump sum payout, AmoSS said. The coming year may only see a gain of about 800 acres. Applicants-seem to be waiting for the county council to increase the per -acre rate. An upcoming comprehensive rezoning also has some landowners on edge as important farms have applied for increased residential density. "The bottom line right now is being able to pay a competitive price. We had as many as a dozen farms turn down offers," Amoss said. Top - ranking Montgomery County continues to see an active transfer of development rights (TDR) market, the driving force for its preserved acreage. "The market is staying robust," said John Zawitoski, reporting $35,000 to $40,000 per right transferred. While the receiving area of Clarksburg continues to drive the market, plans to open addi- tional receiving capacity in Olney and Damascus could increase protection for the county's 93,000 - acre Agricultural Reserve, where residual density following downzoning in 1980 remains at 1:25. Montgomery has adjusted its points -based apprais- 17) als for greater per - consider working in concert with TDR to affect the residual density. Zawitoski said a "super TDR in which the ratio for transfers could be increased from 1:1 to 10:1 in an attempt to approach lot prices and buy down density in the Ag Preserve. Next month, Montgomery will celebrate the 25th anniversary of creating the Ag Reserve. Lancaster County is top - ranking for the pur- chase of development rights and has a new commit- ment from county commissioners for a series of bond issues to continue over the next six to eigh t years: That will significantly boost applications, s aid Rich Doenges, executive director of the Lancaster Agricultural Preserve Board. Of the $80 million commissioners said will eventually be borrowed for farmland and open space, $72 million will be for the APB, including $ 8 million that will be used for matching funds to go to the Lancaster Farmland Trust, Doenges said. It all means $8 million annually for the APB in local funds. The county d received $900,000 in ei eV d $3.6 million from the state this year federal dollars, for an estimated $ 12 million annually. "It's been a good year," Doenges said. "We began the year with a backlog of 252 farms. Then once I learned we'd be getting money, in anticipa- tion of that, I've requested appraisals on 188 farms." Since then, there are 40 new applicants and a waiting list of over 200. Lancaster, like Montgomery, has made some a higher farmland preservation report adjustments to its point system, giving t t reserved farms. is published monthly exceptfor August &December by Bowers Publishing, Inc. 900 La Grange Road Street, Maryland 21154 Telephone: 410 692 -2708 Email: bowerspub @hotmail.com www. farmlandpreservationreport.com Deborah Bowers Editor &Publisher Tom Daniels Senior Contributing Editor Robert J. Heuer Contributing Editor CELEBRATING OUR 15T1 YEAR! Subscription rate of $205 includes index & hotline services. ISSN: 1050 -6373. Copyright 02005 by Bowers Publishing, Inc. All right priority to applicants ad�acen o p "That's paying off, but at the expense of reducing points on farms more likely to develop," Doenges said. The board is also assigning extra points to applicants who choose to offer a bargain sale. This year about 30 families chose some level of bargain sale. Eight of 250 accepted 50 percent of easemen t value. Also this year, the board awarded the Lancaster Farmland Trust with a $500,000 chal- lenge grant. Chester County holds on to third place with the work of the Brandywine Conservancy logging the majority of agricultural easements. Chester County s commissioners allocated $2.7 million to match reserved. Reproduction in any form, or electronic forwarding of thi° material requires permission from the publisher. WMEMPM Continued on page 6 >i Z