Local
government, working on its own, with its environmental commission or with a
land trust can purchase areas of land or easements to protect wetlands.
As
mentioned earlier, an important first step for preservation involves deciding
what lands should be acquired, usually by including them in an open space,
greenway, stream corridor, or conservation element of a municipal or county master
plan. Another important planning option is designating lands as "reserved
for public use" on the master plan or an Official Map, if one exists.
(N.J.S.A. 40:55D-44)
RESERVING LAND
FOR PUBLIC USE
This
option creates an opportunity for a municipality to find the means to acquire
land proposed for development. According to the Municipal Land Use Law (MLUL),
if an Official Map designating land as "reserved for public use" is
adopted when a development application is received, the developer must leave
"reserved" acreage vacant in the site design. The municipality then
has one year to arrange for acquisition of the reserved area. This option
allows municipalities to take positive action toward protecting areas from
encroachment.
METHODS OF
PURCHASE
Funding
is available to local governments from both public and private sources.
Public Sources. In
"All
acquisition projects submitted for funding consideration are expected to
demonstrate conformance with local, county, and state planning goals and should
be part of an on‑going process to
create a permanent land‑water open space system with interrelated
recreation areas, parks, and conservation areas."
(Green Trust Procedural Guide, NJ. Dept. of
Environmental Protection, 1987)
Green Acres will also provide
grants or loans for purchase of perpetual easements if the proposed acquisition
is adjacent and beneficial to public land holdings.
Receipt
of Green Acres funding places obligations on a municipality to insure that all
its existing publicly owned open space is protected. Towns must list all open
space on an inventory and cannot sell those areas for other purposes. In
certain instances Green Acres will allow an exchange for land of equal
environmental value.
Municipal
and County Open Space Tax
Many
Private
Assistance. Private
foundations can help municipalities with
open space acquisition, especially for the planning phase. A number of private,
national, and local foundations provide funding for conservation and
preservation purposes.
Land trusts can assist local government in acquiring land or
easements. Because of their private, non‑profit tax exempt status, land
trusts can also accept donations of land or easements, and offer donors
potential tax benefits.
Land
trusts are established to accomplish specific goals such as land conservation,
farmland preservation, or habitat preservation. They can be local, state, or
national in their scope of operation.
Working
with land trusts offers local government many advantages. Land trusts do not
have the same constraints as government, so can act more quickly to purchase
land and can hold and manage it until a public agency is able to buy it. As
private organizations, they can often work more cooperatively with landowners
than government can. More options are available to private land trusts. For
example, they can make use of the:
-
limited development option, where part of a property
can be developed in order to fund preservation of the remainder;
-
double escrow transaction, where the land trust
acts as an intermediary between a private seller and a government agency in a
bargain sale (buying land below its market value). Land may be encumbered with
a conservation easement during the transaction, and the trust has all its
expenses covered by the profit it makes as "middle‑man".