Media Story

Development rights program under review

By DAVE RANK - Daily News Staff
February 16, 2006

A proposed resolution calling for a well-funded Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program and a plan on how to do it will be presented to county officials next week.

The 13-member Purchase of Development Rights Task Force approved its final report and a draft of the proposed resolution this week, following four months of work.

"I think we did good work here. I just hope it can proceed from this point on," said Daniel Stoffel, task force chairman.

Stoffel is a County Board supervisor from the town of Jackson.

A PDR program is a voluntary farmland preservation tool that permanently preserves farmland and nature areas, preventing urban sprawl into designated prime agricultural properties.

Under such a program, willing landowners maintain ownership of their property but voluntarily sell easements that would keep land in agricultural use, or in the case of woodlands and wetlands, maintain them in their natural state.

Much of the report's findings are based on successful PDR program instituted in counties in other states.

"With this program we have no intention of hindering growth in urban areas," said task force member Scott Lofy, a farmer from the town of Jackson .

The intent, task force members have said, is to preserve as much farm land as possible in the remaining major agricultural communities left in the county.

The task force was put together by the County Board 's Planning, Conservation and Parks Commit-tee (PCPC) back in September, and charged with developing a plan and identify funding for a PDR program. The task force began meeting in November.

The report and proposed resolution will now be presented to the PCPC next week, which, it is hoped, will advance both to the full County Board next month, Stoffel said.

It is expected that the report and an explanation of what a P D R program can do will be provided to the County Board at its March 14 meeting, Stoffel said.

Funding is anticipated from a portion of the county's half-cent sales task, which the County Board approved continuing Tues-day. Landowner donations, contributions from businesses, citizens, foundations and land trusts, and matching grants from various state and federal programs are also available, said Shawn Graff , president of the Ozaukee Wash-ington Land Trust and a task force member.

So far, the county's Planning and Parks D epartment has allocated $100,000 of its 2006 $500,000 sales tax park development allotment for a pilot P D R program to buy development rights on farmland and other open spaces adjacent to county parks.

The task force is proposing a larger program is needed.

In the resolution it endorsed Tuesday, the task force asks that:

* The County Board endorses creation of a PDR program

* At least $800,000 in sales tax money be used annually to support the program (in 2004 the county earned $8.3 million and expects to receive around the same amount again when the 2005 sales tax books are finally closed later this month)

* An ad hoc committee be formed to write an ordinance formally creating a PDR program, with the assistance of various county department staffs.

The task force was composed of County Board supervisors, local farmers, interested citizens, representatives of conservation or-ganizations and members of town boards.

Stoffel said he hopes to have County Board approval for a PDR program by September so it can be included in the county's annual Capital Improvement Plan, which allocates sales tax fund uses in the 2007 budget.