This column series will run in six monthly installments. When completed, the entire article will be available from the Paragon Foundation. Common law dictates that the original parties must intend for the restrictive covenant to run with the land and the covenant must bind the parties and their assigns. In other words, a landowner who enters into such an agreement not only signs away his right to change the use of the land, but also gives away the rights of any future owner to change the use of the land. To understand CEs, view your property as a bundle of distinct rights that can be separated.
Examples are mineral rights, water rights.
Your development rights prevalently constitute the most valuable portion of your entire property rights package. Commonly, when you sell or give a conservation easement, that is what you, your heirs and all future owners lose. The right to develop the property, and in numerous cases the right to use portions of your land and its resources. The Feds sure want them. An example lies in recent federal agency taking-actions.