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landowners here will be affected only in the way they qualify for use value taxation.
“Open space” provisions of the law have been amended to allow the county to grant “automatic” use value taxation to what might be called “committed open space”—properties subject to perpetual conservation easements, properties in formal Agricultural and Forestal Districts, or properties subject to recorded individual owjper commitments with the county not to change to nonqualifying land uses for a stated time period.
Meanwhile, regulatory changes are in process to assure that only “bona fide” farm and forest operations qualify for “agricultural” and “forestal” use value. These changes could bring stricter farm and forest production and income requirements than have existed in the past, and thereby disqualify certain “part-time” or economically marginal properties that are presently taxed at use value.
In other words, to qualify for “land use” tax- • ation in 1989, landowners may have to meet more stringent farm and forest operation standards, or else commit their land as “open space’' that will not be converted to non-qualifying uses for a specific future period.
Mr. Dennis is a director of RLEP and president of the Piedmont Environmental Council. He and his wife reside on their HI acres of mostly woodland outside Flint Hill in Rappahannock County.
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