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Local farmland preservation groups say contracts are unamendable to state intervention

A land preservation advocate says policy changes by the State of Michigan are putting the longevity of farmland preservation credits in jeopardy.

Ingham County Farmland and Open Space Preservation Board Director Stacy Sheridan-Byers tells Brownfield, “We have these landowners who are in limbo, who have been since the time of their easements closing, have been receiving their credits.”

“Now all of a sudden, in the middle of the game, we’re changing the rules,” she says.

She says the state’s farmland preservation program is temporary, only protecting farmland up to 90 years, which is why Public Act 262 of 2000 was passed. It supports more than 25 counties and several township programs that permanently protect land from development.

Sheridan-Byers says until recently, consent agreements have acted as a bridge for landowners to enroll in both programs.

“These PA 116 credits are something that the landowners have been counting on and are planning for in a lot of their business plans,” she shares. “This has had a huge impact on many of our landowners.”

But, now she says the state is asking to be added as a co-holder on the easements for the credits to continue.

“The county has paid 100 percent of our funds for these conservation easements,” she says. “We hold them, the state has not put any money into these conservation easements and therefore really shouldn’t be allowed to have any kind of say or stake in them.”

Sheridan-Byers says permanent conservation easements are not meant to be amended.

“That is the Holy Grail of what a permanent conservation easement is, it is unamendable,” she says. “It is not meant to be able to go back through and open them up and expose them to many other challenges.”

She says preservation boards would like to pause landowner penalties until a resolution can be found.