Mr. Coyner's agricultural experience will allow him to forge a solid relationship with the farming community, says PEC Director of Land Conservation Catherine Scott. I think there's been the perception, in the past, that PEC has worked with estate farms and not really with working farms. Farmers traditionally have been the best stewards of the land. For more than a decade, PEC has promoted conservation easements as among the best means of preserving open space. Mr. Coyner will begin to shop around that program to Fauquier and Culpeper farmers.
Easements permanently prohibit future subdivision of land.
In exchange for such a commitment, a landowner gets income tax deductions equal to the property's potential development value. A farm has an agricultural and development value, which together add up to its fair market value. And its development value typically represents 30 percent of its fair market value, Mr. Coyner says. The Virginia Outdoors Foundation, a quasi-governmental organization established by the General Assembly, holds easements on property around the state. Easements have been used to protect more than 111,000 acres in the Piedmont.