One summer in the early 1980s, John v.H. Halsey returned to Southampton from the West Coast to find a “For Sale” sign in front of the 10th-generation farm next to his house on Wickapogue Road.
He spoke of the farm as his childhood playground, but it was clear that it was more than that—it was a crucial part of his sense of self. “Seeing that big sign had an enormous effect on me,” he said. The effect was that of sinking defenselessness against a force that was pulling his world in a direction he did not want.
Then, as now, one formidable obstacle to preserving farmland on the South Fork was the estate tax. When a farm transfers from one generation to the next, a tax is due, and it is based on the value of the land in its “highest and best use”—as developed as possible—as opposed to its present use, in this case, agriculture. Therefore, farmers often are incentivized to transition their land to this use. In other words, the next generation of farmers can be rich as landowners but not as farmers. Thus comes the familiar description of East End farmers as “land rich, cash poor.”
A few years after seeing the sign on his neighbor’s property, in 1983, Mr. Halsey founded the Peconic Land Trust, a nonprofit organization that works with landowners, communities, municipalities and other organizations to preserve farmland, natural lands and local heritage. Since then, the trust has completed more than 400 projects and protected approximately 10,000 acres.
Now, in partnership with the Southampton Town Board, the Peconic Land Trust is a just few signatures away from acquiring two parcels of farmland, totaling 33 acres, north of the highway in Water Mill from the estate of Charlotte Danilevsky. But these are not typical acquisitions: Arguably, they represent a progressive step for farmland preservation on the East End, and a potential new way forward to protect not just the land but its active agricultural use.
“It is the first time the trust has partnered with a municipality to protect farmland in perpetuity,” said Mr. Halsey, “and it was crucial that the town was involved.”
In May, the Southampton Town Board approved spending $11.1 million on the deal, money that comes from the Community Preservation Fund, fed primarily by a 2-percent tax on most real estate transactions. With the purchase, Southampton Town now owns the development rights to the Danilevsky property and controls all of the restrictions and easements that the Peconic Land Trust placed upon it.
“We are looking at this partnership as a boiler plate,” said Anna Throne-Holst, the Southampton Town supervisor. “It is the beginning of an enhanced effort on the part of the CPF to become more proactive about land acquisition by targeting landowners before their properties hit the market. Conducting these transactions outside the market is key to our future.”
This point proved true with the acquisition of the Danilevsky property. “We were fortunate, because we had an inside track with the owner,” Mr. Halsey said of getting a leg up before competition got stiffer to purchase the parcels. “We were able to appraise the property and create our bid before it hit the market.”
The truly novel aspect of this acquisition comes in the additional restrictions that the Peconic Land Trust has placed on the land, which were modeled on more progressive farmland preservation efforts found in states like Vermont and Massachusetts. In effect, they add another layer of protection by requiring that the “protected farmland” actually be farmed rather than simply added to neighboring residential properties as “luxury lawn” or fallow fields—a practice that has actually forced up the value of protected land, making it harder for farmers to acquire and use for agricultural purposes.
“Recently, the sales of protected farmland on the South Fork to non-farmers have been as high as $200,000 per acre,” said Mr. Halsey, “which has brought the average value of protected farmland to about $120,000 per acre.” Not only does that make it difficult for farmers to purchase land, but it also encourages them—thanks to the next generation being taxed on the “highest and best use”—to sell to developers.
The land trust’s new restrictions, called “affirmative and affordable farming covenants and resale restrictions,” have the effect of reducing the value of the land—away from its “highest and best use”—to a level that farmers can afford, both to purchase and to pay taxes on. In the case of the Danilevsky property, that number has been lowered to roughly $25,000 per acre.
on Jul 7, 2014