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Draft 10/8/99 <br />PART ,2. 1 VI~IN~ CE1 VJEN7"~IND <br />FUNDING <br />V. Tools and Techniques <br />There are- a number of methods. available for the County to consider in <br />seeking to acquire or preserve important natural and cultural .resources <br />and parklands. The following :section offers a number of the most-likely <br />techniques, with a brief assessment of the potential use of the tool in the <br />County's program.. <br />A. Fee-Simple Purchase <br />Certainly .the most straightforward and.: easily-understood method <br />of acquiring land resources is simple purchase of the land for fee- <br />simple considerations. <br />Fee-simple is the most common tool for acquisition, for avariety of <br />reasons. The approach is simple and is most easily understood by <br />both the seller. and buyer, as a standard real estate transaction. <br />'There are no questions about ownership of the land acquired,. and <br />importantly no questions over who has responsibility for monitoring <br />and stewardship concerns, which is a significant. issue (as <br />mentioned later in Section VI). Afee-simple purchase is-the most <br />certain type of acquisition, .without the spectre of perpetuity. issues <br />in the future. <br />However, the outright purchase of land does have drawbacks in a <br />. program of land 'acquisition. The -cost is usually higher for full <br />purchase, and. it requires a subdivision. of the property if the owner <br />is not conveying the entirety of-the property in question. In,some <br />cases, the buyer may not be interested in owning the property and <br />there may be interest in .keeping the land in -private ownership <br />(such as a working farm, for example). <br />In the Orange Lands Legacy program, fee-simple purchase would <br />likely be a primary tool for acquisition.. For very sensitive lands that <br />contain natural areas or .wildlife habitat, where -long-term <br />maintenance needs to be simple and straightforward, this tool may <br />be most appropriate. For .parkland, which is generally (but not <br />always) owned by the provider, purchase would be the primary. <br />tool. It also may be important to hold. title to historic and cultural <br />27 <br />