HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010-09-10 Penjajawoc Marsh / Bangor Mall Management Commission Minutes
Penjajawoc Marsh/Bangor Mall Management Commission
September 10, 2010
ATTENDANCE
Commission Members:
Jackie Hewett (Chaired) Marion Rudnicki Jim Hinds Cindy DeBeck
Tricia Quirk Bradley Medling Jessica Junsujwicz Judy Kellogg Markowsky
Staff:
Jim Ring David Gould
Others:
Stacy Gambrel Stephanie Gilbert
The Commission met Friday, September 10, 2010 in the City Council Chambers. The meeting
was called to order at 1:00 p.m.
Meeting minutes from July 30, 2010 were moved by Jessica and seconded by Cindy for
approval.
Stacy provided an overview of the Maine Farmland Trust function history, conserved 17,000
acres of farmland in _______________________________.
Agricultural Conservation Easement vol. legal agreement with a land trust assuring agricultural
use, private ownership, no future subdivision or development. It doesn’t require public access
90+% of the time. Maine Farmland Trust does annual inspections, certifications of compliance
with the easement (i.e. “enforcer”). With a traditional conservation easement and general
conservation = habitat preservation. Agricultural easement just assures agricultural use and
allows supporting activities for agricultural use, including all agricultural uses not limiting to
current agricultural use. Allows for new agricultural buildings, fences, etc. and sometimes
easements allowing future house lots. Examples were provided.
It was explained there were two types of easements - one would be donated which would
require no funding and offer a federal tax deduction for donation to non-profits and may reduce
property taxes. The other option was to purchase, which Maine Farmland Trust didn’t have the
funds. Dependent upon LFMF and federal program with a 50/50 contribution and usually took
one to three years to work through.
Another program would be to buy, protect, and sell which would include purchase, applying an
easement, and resell to farmers. There have been eight projects since 2007 and five more in
2010. The average size of protected projects was equal to 100 acres.
Maine Farmland Trust often used low interest revolving loans and usually resold within a year.
They rely on grant programs to cover value reduction, sometimes might reconfigure to allow
limited development or subdivide slightly.
Maine Farmlink was a program to connect new prospect buyers with sellers and could provide
sales, lease, management. There were 57 successful links to date.
1
Farmland viability
2