By Brian Shane

Staff Writer

Landowners in the Bishopville and Showell communities have a new opportunity to preserve their land forever from residential development – and get paid for it.

The state has pledged grant funding in the amount of $800,000 for what is being called the Bishopville-Showell Rural Legacy Area (RLA). The preservation tract will encompass approximately 11,753 acres and is one-third farmland. The land is also viable for forestry.

“Maintaining the rural landscape here is of huge importance to the local agricultural economy that depends upon contiguous farmland for productivity,” said Katherine Munson, planning manager for the county’s Department of Environmental Programs. “Continued significant residential and commercial development of these watersheds will inevitably lead to further degradation of streams, the river and the bays.”

Funds will be used to secure conservation easements in the county with willing landowners. The Worcester County Board of Commissioners at its Oct. 15 meeting voted to approve an agreement with the state to proceed with this new RLA.

Another $525,000 in grants will be available also for an existing RLA straddling the Somerset County border, called the Dividing Creek RLA, officials said. Worcester and Somerset counties share the Dividing Creek RLA.

There is no cost to Worcester County to participate. Funding for RLAs comes from the state’s Program Open Space, which is sourced by a tax on real estate transfers. Munson said the county’s environmental team has been working for months to obtain this grant funding to purchase and preserve property.

The state’s Board of Public Works, which greenlit Worcester’s RLA plan at its August 28 meeting, is the body that eventually give final approval to release Rural Legacy funds, after getting a full report on applicant properties, Munson said.

Securing a portion of your property for a Rural Legacy Area can take up to two years, Munson said. The application process for each easement includes reviewing the property for environmental hazards, assessing land for value, a border survey, clearance of title, and then a final OK from the Board of Public Works.

Properties up for conservation, however, must have development potential. In exchange for a buyout, no residential development will ever be allowed on the land. The landowner will still own their segment of preserved property, and the county will hold the easement. The easement runs with the property in perpetuity.

Once RLA status is granted, it doesn’t end there. County officials will continue to visit the property every three years to make sure that the landowner is remaining in compliance, Munson said.

Nine landowners expressed interest in joining the Bishopville-Showell RLA, connecting with the county through flyers mailed home or at a public meeting. Munson said two to four conservation easements will be purchased this cycle.

It’s the first time a new preservation tract has been introduced for Worcester County since 2008. The state created the Dividing Creek RLA in 2008 and the Coastal Bays RLA in 1999.

The state also will be allowing up to $925,000 to transfer from the existing Coastal Bays RLA to the new Bishopville RLA, officials noted.

“There are still great properties to protect in the Coastal Bays RLA,” Munson said. “So, we will keep offering the option to landowners there and can apply for more funds in the future if there is interest.”

To date, Worcester County has protected 13,372 acres of farmland and forest through the Rural Legacy program, with a goal of protecting another 2,000 acres in the Bishopville-Showell RLA in the next decade. Cropland accounts for about 89,000 acres, or about a third of Worcester County, Munson said.

The state already has one existing land preservation program, called the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation Program, or MALPF. This program is available only for properties under 50 acres. The county has preserved 10,788 acres with MALPF easements since 1993.

Munson said her office had been approached by eager landowners who wanted to participate in MALPF but did not qualify based on acreage.

“There are a number of family farms under 50 acres that do not meet the minimum lot requirement to participate in (MALPF), so this new RLA area opens new doors of opportunity for them to protect their farms in perpetuity,” Munson said. “This may be our last chance to preserve the farmland and woodland in this area.”