Land Conservation
Land conservation and quality of life issues in Schuylkill County are among the top priorities for creating sustainable and livable communities. The SCC works with landowners, municipalities, and businesses to help implement a variety of land conservation tools.
Conservation Easements
A conservation easement is a voluntary agreement that allows a landowner to limit the type or amount of development on their property while retaining private ownership of the land. The easement is signed by the landowner, who is the easement donor, and the Conservancy, who is the party receiving the easement. The Conservancy accepts the easement with understanding that it must enforce the terms of the easement in perpetuity. After the easement is signed, it is recorded with the County Register of Deeds and applies to all future owners of the land.
People grant conservation easements because they want to protect their property from unwanted development but they also wish to retain ownership of their land. By granting a conservation easement a landowner can assure that the property will be protected forever, regardless of who owns the land in the future.
Another way to visualize a conservation easement is to think of owning land as holding a bundle of sticks. Each one of these sticks represents the landowner's right to do something with their property. The right to build a house, to extract minerals, to lease the property, pass it on to heirs, allow hunting are all rights that the landowner has. A landowner may give up certain development rights, or sticks from the bundle, associated with their property through a document called a conservation easement. Every easement is unique, tailored to a particular landowner's goals and their land.
Many landowners receive a federal income tax deduction for the gift of a Conservation Easement. The Internal Revenue Service allows a deduction if the easement is perpetual and donated "exclusively for conservation purposes." The amount of the tax deduction is determined by the value of the conservation easement. In addition, the donor may have estate and property tax relief.
The landowner continues to own the property after executing an easement. Therefore, the owner can sell, give or lease the property, as before. However, all future owners assume ownership of the property subject to the conditions of the easement.