Glade Valley Government 

Walkersville Recommends Approval of Agricultural Preservation Easements

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cropped-townseal1.jpgThe Town of Walkersville voted Wednesday evening to recommend approval of three Agricultural Preservation Easement applications and express their support of three other applications.

The Frederick County Planning Commission asked for comments from the Town of Walkersville regarding six applications for the easements. Walkersville Planning Commission members were told that forty properties applied for easements, and the list had been narrowed to twenty, which includes these six properties.

Farms that meets the three main criteria below are eligible for Frederick County’s Agricultural preservation programs. To be eligible for the Rural Legacy Program, the farm property must be located in one of the designated Rural Legacy areas.

    • The property must be fifty or more acres unless it adjoins a property already under a permanent easement.
    • The property must have qualifying soils.
    • The property must have development rights.

An agricultural preservation easement is a legal agreement between a landowner and Frederick County that permanently limits development of a property in order to protect its agricultural or natural resource value. Easements allow the landowner to continue to own and use their land as they normally would and to sell it or pass it on to heirs, however, the easement is a deed restriction that goes with the property when it is sold or bequeathed. Subsequent owners of the property have to abide by the easement restrictions and cannot develop the property.

One property of 54 acres, Pikes View LLC, lies within the Town of Walkersville. Two properties, owned by Andrew Toms (69 acres) and Bradley and Jamie Lambert (66 acres), lie within Walkersville’s “Ultimate Annexation Limits” or “area of influence.”

Three other properties border Walkersville’s area, but are not in any other municpalities:

  • 194.86 acres owned by David and Barbara Crum,
  • 151 acres owned by Antonio and Jennifer Checchia, and
  • 154 acres owned by Ryan Seiler.

On Tuesday, the Walkersville Planning Commission voted to recommend approval of all six properties. Discussion began on the three properties within the Town’s “area of influence.” Planning Commission member Michael Kuster recommended all six properties be approved, because development on those properties would cause terrible traffic conditions on Routes 26 and 194. The other members agreed.

On Wednesday, Burgess Chad Weddle cautioned against appearing to interfere in the zoning of properties in other jurisdictions. In response, Town Commissioner Russ Winch moved to recommend that the Frederick County Planning Commission approve of the three farms within Walkersville’s Ultimate Annexation Limits, and to state that Walkersville supports the other properties remaining in agricultural use. The motion passed unanimously.

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