It's true that land values just won t decrease in New England. But the stock market has averaged a 10-12 percent average return since the Depression. Another option for keeping land in farming is to take it out of chapter 61A, which reduces property taxes on land that is actively farmed, but leave on conservation restrictions. By itself, chapter 61A is a bit of a farce. The penalty for taking land out of 61A is only 3 years of back taxes a very small sum to developers.
Properties come up for sale at extraordinary prices.
There was a piece of land in our town, 27-28 acres, with supposedly 4 buildable lots. It could have been a nursery, but now it will be houses instead. And it is being subdivided for probably 25 houses, not just 4. By itself, it won't save farms from development, but it is a tool that lets people keep their land open. We're fully aware that chapter 61A is flawed, for some of the reasons Laura has mentioned, but we think it is worth fixing.