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By Nicholas M. Horrock
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
With the 766 houses of Clevenger Village poised to go up on farm land along Rappahannock County’s border, the Board of Supervisors is studying a proposed ordinance to protect farm land here from development.
Called the “Farmland Preservation Ordinance,” the proposal would allow the county to buy the “development rights” to farm acreage, allowing the farmer to receive cash payments as long as he kept the land in farming and avoids the lure of selling out to developers.
When the farmer chooses to sell his land, the purchaser could only use it for farming activities, and would be governed by the easement the farmer had granted to the county.
“This isn’t aimed at a wealthy dentist who owns the top of a mountain,” said County Administrator JoVin McCarthy “This is aimed at the land-rich but cash-poor farmer who wanti,to stay on the land.”
Wealthy land owners can donate their land as a conservation easement, protect it from development and get a tax write-off, McCarthy pointed out.
At the Board of Supervisors meeting Monday, County Attorney Peter Luke said he believed that the board should proceed with the plan as a program instead of an ordinance, in order to make it easier to change.
Monira Rifaat, of Manor Farm, a member of the committee that drafted the proposal, told the meeting she hoped the board would use the ordinance, which was stronger, required a full public hearing, and was harder to abolish.
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